The German government has announced that it will not congratulate Vladimir Putin on his election victory and will not recognise its legitimacy, Reuters reports.
This was announced at a briefing by the representative of the German Cabinet of Ministers, Christiane Hofmann, when asked how the German authorities intend to call Putin ex officio – "president or ruler".
"At the moment, we do not have a dialogue with Vladimir Putin, so the question is not relevant right now. <...> But I have made it clear that we do not recognise these elections as legitimate," she stressed.
German Foreign Ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer said that the foreign ministry would continue to refer to the Russian leader as "just Putin".
As a reminder, the Foreign Ministries of Poland and Lithuania have also declared their refusal to consider the Russian presidential election fair and legitimate. The Lithuanian government called the vote in Russia a "tragic farce".
Background. As reported, the leaders of 17 countries have so far congratulated Putin on his election victory. The leaders of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were the first to contact Putin by phone on the morning of 18 March.