MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. Moscow repudiates the United States’ assessment of Russia’s presidential election and has no intention of heeding it, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
Earlier, a US National Security Council (NSC) official told journalists that Washington had slammed Russia’s presidential election as "neither free nor fair."
"We categorically reject this assessment. Speaking to journalists late in the evening yesterday, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin noted that such assessments were quite expected and predictable," Peskov said, adding that the United States "is deeply involved" in the conflict in Ukraine.
"As a matter of fact, this country is fighting against us. Obviously, other assessments could hardly be expected, although, let me say it again: We categorically disagree with them and this is not an opinion we are willing to heed, nor is it of any importance to us these days," he stressed.
Russia held its first three-day presidential election over the period March 15-17. Remote electronic voting, also a first, was available to voters in 29, or about one-third, of the country’s regions. According to the Central Election Commission, after 99.43% of vote tally reports by local election commissions had been processed, incumbent head of state Vladimir Putin held a resounding lead over his three rivals with 87.32% of the vote.