VILNIUS - Lithuania does not recognize the results of "sham" Russian State Duma elections, in which Vladimir Putin’s party reportedly won a record number of seats, Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys stated on Monday.
"Russia’s State Duma so-called elections were neither free nor fair. Opposition silenced, independent voices suppressed, OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) observers barred," Budrys said in an X post.
"Holding sham votes in occupied territories of Ukraine is a blatant violation of international law. We will never recognize these results," the Lithuanian foreign minister stressed.
His remarks came after preliminary results showed on Monday that Putin's United Russia party won a record 355 seats in Russia's 450-seat Duma lower house of parliament.
With almost all votes counted from the poll, in which no parties critical of Putin took part, results showed the presidential party will have a supermajority larger than its previous 2016 record of 343 seats.
It was Russia's first parliamentary election since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive in 2022.
The Kremlin tightly controls elections and Moscow has banned criticism of its military campaign in Ukraine.
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