Russia will not give up Crimea and other annexed regions in Ukraine.
This was clarified during a crowd in Red Square by Vladimir Putin, on the strength of the triumph announced at the end of the three days of presidential elections which gave him, according to the official results, the greatest victory for a head of state in the history of the country, with 87.3% of the votes.
A plebiscite that can serve Putin both to continue the conflict and, if the opportunity presents itself, to start negotiations from positions of strength.
To underline the unity of the country, the head of the Kremlin brought with him on stage the three candidates defeated with humiliating percentages, below 5% each.
In front of tens of thousands of people who came to attend a concert on the 10th anniversary of the annexation of Crimea, Putin said Russia would move forward "with the new regions, hand in hand."
It is true, he admitted, that the journey of the people of Donbass "to their homeland", that is, Russia, turned out to be "more difficult and tragic" than that of Crimea.
"But we did it anyway", he assured, before singing the national anthem with the whole square, in a blaze of Russian flags.
It is difficult to fully understand the meaning of these words.
That is, whether Putin means to say that Russia could be satisfied with the territories conquered so far, or whether he wants to widen the conflict.
Moscow continues to insist that it is ready for negotiations that take into account the situation on the ground, i.e. Russian control over part of Ukraine.
Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov reiterated this when he received the Chinese envoy Li Hui, who visited various European countries in recent days.
The head of Russian diplomacy, the Foreign Ministry said, "confirmed the Russian side's openness to a negotiated solution".
But the so-called 'Zelensky formula', which provides for the complete withdrawal of the Russians from the regions occupied during the conflict and from Crimea, is "unacceptable".
Added to this was a statement to the Izvestia newspaper by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to which Russia is "ready for negotiations on all security issues, including nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation".
These statements follow those of Putin himself who last night had indicated France as a country that "can still play a role" in the search for a negotiated solution, because "all is not yet lost".
A surprise after President Emmanuel Macron's words on possible "field operations" by NATO countries in Ukraine "to face Russian forces".
The Russian leader had also said he was ready to consider the possibility of a truce for the Olympics,
provided that it is not just a pause to give Kiev the opportunity to "rearm".
Spokesman Peskov meanwhile rejected Western claims relating to the "illegitimacy" of the elections as "absurd".
Accusations relaunched by the independent Russian monitoring group Golos, according to which these were the "most fraudulent and corrupt" consultations in the country's history, because "the campaign took place in a situation in which the fundamental articles of the Russian Constitution, which guarantee political rights and liberties were essentially not in place."
In a message from prison, oppositionist Ilya Yashin wrote that Putin wanted a triumphant victory because he cannot free himself from "his Freudian complexes".
The real objective of the operation, Yashin added, is to "plunge that part of society that is against the war into apathy".
Meanwhile, rumors are circulating in Moscow about possible reshuffles in the government to bring young forces to the fore.
The Reuters agency, citing four sources close to power, wrote that among those who could advance in rank is Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev, 46, son of Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the National Security Council.
But two of the sources declare themselves convinced that, at least as long as the conflict in Ukraine lasts, neither Lavrov, nor Defense Minister Serghei Shoigu, nor Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will be replaced.
Video Putin: 'No one will intimidate us once we are consolidated'
"Farce elections", "incredibly anti-democratic", "neither free nor fair": this is the unanimous chorus from the USA, their G7 allies and Europe after the obvious plebiscite that reconfirmed Vladimir Putin.
With Berlin and London the first to announce that they will not recognize the vote in Russia - delegitimizing the Tsar as a possible interlocutor in any future negotiation or treaty - nor the one held in certain parts of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova in violation of international law.
The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe also unanimously urged the international community to no longer recognize Putin's legitimacy as president and called on all countries to cease all contact with him, except for the pursuit of peace and for humanitarian purposes , for example to organize prisoner exchanges or to bring Ukraine's children home.
A line being examined by the G7 under the Italian presidency, where the ability to interact with Putin in the future is at stake (starting from the conflict in Ukraine), while a significant portion of the world congratulates the Tsar, including countries close to the USA and Europe such as India and Turkey.
The 'la' for the rejection of the Russian vote was given on Sunday by US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby with a laconic statement to Reuters: "These elections were clearly neither free nor fair given that Putin imprisoned political opponents thus preventing them from running against him."
"It was an incredibly anti-democratic process," a State Department spokesperson reiterated the following day in the daily briefing, warning that "there will certainly be no congratulatory phone call from the United States."
Silence so far on the part of Joe Biden (but also of his rival Donald Trump), who was busy in the morning with a long phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and a reception in the presidential residence for Women's History Month.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke for him in the usual White House briefing: "There was nothing free or fair in these elections and the result was a foregone conclusion. The reality is that Putin is the president of Russia. We have had to face this reality throughout the war in Ukraine and we will continue to face this reality, but that reality does not negate the fact that this election did not meet any standard of freedom or fairness," he said.
In the meantime, all the main Western chancelleries had already expressed their opinions, with different but unanimous nuances regarding the non-free vote.
Berlin fired the first shot by announcing that it will not recognize the outcome of "undemocratic" elections and that it will continue to refer to the Russian head of state simply as "Putin" without any qualification, as it has already done "in recent times".
"Russia is now a dictatorship and is governed by Vladimir Putin in an authoritarian manner, as the federal chancellor has already said," the government spokesman specified.
London is on the same wavelength, according to which these elections "show the extent of the repression".
"Putin removes his political opponents, controls the media and then crowns himself the winner. This is not democracy", attacked the head of British diplomacy David Cameron, while Defense Minister Grant Shapps called the Kremlin leader a "Stalin of the days our".
The EU's high representative for foreign policy, Joseph Borrell, also denounced the elections as "neither free nor fair", based on "repression and intimidation".
Concepts reiterated by the Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and his French colleague, who also praised the courage of the Russian citizens "who peacefully demonstrated their opposition to this attack on their fundamental political rights".
"A farce, a parody", added the head of Czech diplomacy Jan Lipavsky.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Canada has also criticized an irregular electoral process.
Silence on the other hand from Trump, whose flirtation with the Tsar worries the intelligence in the event of his victory: it does not encourage his intention to hire his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, whom he pardoned after his conviction in Russiagate, as an advisor, nor his hope not to have to choose between Putin "swallowing" Ukraine or sending weapons to Kiev.
who also praised the courage of Russian citizens "who peacefully demonstrated their opposition to this attack on their fundamental political rights".
"A farce, a parody", added the head of Czech diplomacy Jan Lipavsky.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Canada has also criticized an irregular electoral process.
Silence on the other hand from Trump, whose flirtation with the Tsar worries the intelligence in the event of his victory: it does not encourage his intention to hire his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, whom he pardoned after his conviction in Russiagate, as an advisor, nor his hope not to have to choose between Putin "swallowing" Ukraine or sending weapons to Kiev.
who also praised the courage of Russian citizens "who peacefully demonstrated their opposition to this attack on their fundamental political rights".
"A farce, a parody", added the head of Czech diplomacy Jan Lipavsky.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Canada has also criticized an irregular electoral process.
Silence on the other hand from Trump, whose flirtation with the Tsar worries the intelligence in the event of his victory: it does not encourage his intention to hire his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, whom he pardoned after his conviction in Russiagate, as an advisor, nor his hope not to have to choose between Putin "swallowing" Ukraine or sending weapons to Kiev.
Video Russia, Putin: 'From the outcome of the vote there is total confidence among the citizens'
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