Johnathan Paoli
THE Presidency said on Wednesday, while congratulating Russian President Vladimir Putin on his landslide victory, that both countries had mutual cooperation at the multilateral level, including common membership of the UN, the G20, BRICS and other multilateral bodies.
Putin won a landslide re-election on Sunday, taking 87% of the vote, for his fifth term as the leader of the Russian Federation.
Russian Ambassador to South Africa, Ilya Igorevich Rogachev, emphasised that Russia and South Africa shared a similar vision for the future of geopolitics.
“It is absolutely necessary to mention that our countries share the view of the future world – the world we would like to live in, and we will live in, which is a polycentric world without the dominance of a single power or a single bloc of states,” Rogachev said.
The Presidency said that South Africa would continue to engage both Russia and Ukraine in search of lasting peace between the two warring neighbouring countries, following the announcement of the department of International Relations and Cooperation’s official visit to the Ukrainian capital for international talks on Wednesday.
Russia’s Central Election Commission said on Monday that with nearly 100% of all precincts counted, Putin had won 87.29% of the vote.
Commission chief Ella Pamfilova said nearly 76 million voters cast their ballots for Putin, his highest vote tally ever.
However, criticism of the fairness of the elections have been increasing, including growing concern over what many have called a dictatorship.
Upon completing his upcoming term, Putin will have been in power longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century, and in light of the recent death of opposition ruler Alexei Navalny, allegations of oppression and authoritarian control of Russia’s political system have been leveled against Putin.
Public criticism of Putin and his war in Ukraine has been stifled, with independent media being crippled and other major critics either dead, imprisoned or in exile.
Meanwhile Russia accuses Ukraine of election sabotage, as its drones allegedly struck targets across Russia and disrupted electricity supply on the last day of its presidential election.
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