Opinion: Kiev suffered most from blocking Russian election in Ukraine

By blocking Russian citizens from polling stations, the Ukrainian authorities gained nothing but showed its disrespect for the international law, expert of Word and Deed NGO Valentyn Gladkykh has announced at a news conference in Kiev.

“I could have understood it if such a position could somehow influence the will of the Russian people. I can responsibly say that the only thing the Sunday performance in Kiev influenced was perception of the Ukrainian state and Ukrainian authorities as not very adequate ones. And the opportunity was snatched: Putin made a statement saying, yes, they are clowns, they did not let us conduct the election, but still we do not take offence,” PolitNavigator quotes him as saying.

However, according to Gladkykh, the matter is not Putin: there is the international community and international agreements. Blocking access of Russians to polling station in Russia’s diplomatic missions, Ukraine failed to fulfil its obligations and showed complete disrespect to norms of the international law.

He believes the behavior of the Ukrainian authorities looked very bad; and the key thing that it was ineffective as it bore no result, only a negative one. Once again, “Ukraine’s enemies” had an opportunity to show to the whole world that Kiev disregards all norms and laws.