MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/. Western countries exerted enormous pressure on the elections held in new Russian regions and did their utmost to interfere, but invariably failed, Fernando Moragon, president of the Spanish-Russian Association for the Study of Eurasia (Observatorio Hispano-Ruso de Eurasia) and chairman of the Spanish-Chinese council One Belt, One Road, has said.
"There has been tremendous pressure from the West. They [the Western countries] did everything possible to interfere in this process, but they failed," he told a TASS news conference devoted to how international monitoring went at the elections in the new constituent territories of Russia.
The expert emphasized the difficulties Russia had to face during the elections and stressed that there were "constant attacks from the Western media" against the election process.
"As always, the West, Europe, the United States use a double standard when criticizing Russia and other countries," he continued. "When it comes, for example, to a country like Israel, which has integrated into Western society, they act <...> on the Golan Heights with the support of the United States. This is what happens all the time: double standards."
The analyst drew attention to the more than 20,000 cyberattacks that were carried out during the elections.
"Just imagine the scale: the attacks were from Ukraine, as well as from Europe, the United States and so on," he added. "We saw how firm Russia's information system really is. It was able to resist these attacks."
Moragon also noted that the turnout for the elections, despite the Ukrainian conflict, steadily increased and "was not interrupted."
"They handled those elections very calmly," he emphasized. "The bravery of many people in those regions" was particularly impressive. "Amid the artillery attacks and drone attacks they stayed calm," the expert noted.
About the elections
Elections in Russian regions as part of the single voting day were held on September 8 through 10. The Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions took part in them for the first time. Voting in the new regions was accompanied by Ukrainian bombardments and drone raids. On the first day of the election, the regional election commission in Kherson Region was forced to relocate. On Sunday night a drone destroyed a polling station in Zaporozhye Region.