The Russian president reflected on the contested 2020 US election when discussing referendums
Elections in Russia’s new regions were honest and transparent because people showed up to vote in person, unlike the voting by mail in the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a meeting with municipal educators in Moscow, the Russian president brought up the 2020 American presidential election as an example of what democracy should not look like.
“It’s probably possible to falsify anything. Just like previous elections in the US were falsified through voting by mail. Well, it’s clear what voting by mail is. They bought ballots for $10, wrote them in and, without any supervision from observers, tossed them into mailboxes. And there you go,” Putin said.
His observation came in response to a question about the voting in Kherson, Zaporozhye and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, formerly Ukrainian territories that joined Russia in 2022. No one forced people there to show up at the polls, or barred them from doing so – they simply voted with their feet, Putin said.
“What is this, if not democracy? Democracy is when people express their will,” said the Russian president.
