MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. One of the factors behind the record-high voter turnout in Russia’s presidential election was outside pressure by the West, Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said.
"Of course, there are several reasons for this (high voter turnout - TASS). The first one is of a political character. After experiencing these tough sanctions, as well as political, economic, military and other kinds of pressure - Russia responded in such a way (high voter turnout - TASS)," Pamfilova said.
According to her, the West has for many years been indoctrinating the global community in the false premise that Russian elections are never conducted freely. "[They say] that people are almost being made to vote, and now - almost at gunpoint, poor prisoners. It is such a mediaeval mentality - not to know our multinational people! We are convinced that our country is free, characterized by freewill, and our people are well-educated and will not tolerate pressure on them neither from the inside nor from the outside. They may endure it for a certain period of time, but later they will find a means to escape such pressure," the CEC chief said.
She emphasized that Russians have demonstrated their freedom and independence by voting. "We did not want to show or prove anything to anyone. We simply proved to ourselves that we are an independent nation that does look to anyone else [for instructions], but does what it deems necessary for the country’s development, and thus inadvertently we showed the West that we are also united," Pamfilova said.
She stressed that throughout the years Russians have begun taking pride in their "ability to hold democratic, free, transparent, open and direct elections in contrast to many Western countries that do not conduct direct elections."