Ukrainian parliament to call on countries to deny Putin legitimacy as leader of Russia
The Verkhovna Rada is preparing an appeal to the countries of the world with a request not to recognize Vladimir Putin as the "legitimate president" of Russia, Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of the Committee on Foreign Policy, told Radio Liberty.
According to him, one of the initiators is the Speaker of the Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk and the committee headed by Merezhko. The parliamentary opposition also worked on the development of the appeal. The draft resolution No. 11094 is published on the website of the Rada.
On March 15-17, the Kremlin held sham "presidential elections" in Russia and temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
The explanatory note to the draft resolution states that the Ukrainian legislature should express its position regarding the "criminal activities of the Kremlin regime, emphasize the nullity of the held 'elections of the president of the Russian Federation' in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and call on the world community not to recognize the 'president of the Russian Federation' elected in this way", including his legal standing in international relations".
A Servant of the People MP, a member of the committee on foreign policy, Maria Mezentseva, told LIGA.net that the PACE reacts "faster than anyone else" to foreign policy situations related to the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.
She recalled that on October 13, the PACE unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the member states of the organization to recognize Putin as illegitimate after the end of his current "presidential term" and to stop all contacts with him, except for humanitarian ones and for the purpose of achieving peace.
According to Mezentseva, the fact that Putin was "congratulated" by the leaders of the DPRK, China, and Iran and not by the leaders of Ukraine's allies indicates that "everything is being done correctly."
"What's more, we all saw the numbers [votes of the "voters"]. It is not even known what this dictator wanted to draw for himself. It reminds me of Mr. Ceausescu – he ended up under the tribunal that we are trying to arrange for Putin and his team," she concluded.
On May 2, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada voted to define the current political regime in the Russian Federation as "rascist" and condemned its ideological foundations and social practices as totalitarian and misanthropic.
On September 12 of the same year, the Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Legal Affairs and Human Rights declared that the changes made to the Constitution of Russia make it a "de facto dictatorship."