Russia responds to Western leaders who refuse to call Putin 'president'

Russian Foreign Ministry official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded to the refusal of the German Foreign Ministry to call Vladimir Putin president in official documents after he was re-elected to the position for the fifth time.

German Foreign Ministry official representative Sebastian Fischer earlier said that the department would refer to Putin in documents only by his last name without indicating his position.

"The same way we did it in the past — Putin,” he noted. At the same time, Putin is listed as the President of Russia on the website of the German Foreign Ministry.

Zakharova said that the German Foreign Ministry probably had severe phobias.

"Call the doctors at Werderscher Markt, 1 (address of the German Foreign Ministry — ed.) — memory loss and acute phobias,” she wrote in her Telegram channel.

First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Svetlana Zhurova noted that Russia should not pay no mind to what the German Foreign Ministry announces in regards to the Russian election.

"They would not recognise the election because of Crimea, because of the four new regions. They do not consider our president to be president because of such nuances; in their opinion, he cannot be one. But it is our election within the country and it is our decision," Zhurova said.

High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, believes that the Russian presidential election was allegedly held in a "limited political environment.”

"The election took place in an environment of shrinking political space. This deprived Russian voters of real choice and significantly limited their access to reliable information," Borrell said.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan also commented on the results of the presidential election in Russia. According to him, the reality is that Putin is the President of Russia. The United States will act on this basis, but the election in Russia did not meet the criteria of freedom and democracy, he added.

Deputy head of the US State Department press service Vedant Patel stated that the United States would not congratulate Putin on his victory, because the elections in Russia were neither free nor fair.

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili expressed dissatisfaction with the holding of the Russian presidential election on the territory of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"It is completely unacceptable and illegal to hold elections for the President of the Russian Federation in the occupied regions of Georgia. This once again grossly violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia and is completely contrary to international norms," Salome Zurabishvili said.

The Polish Foreign Ministry noted that the presidential elections in Russia could not be considered legal, free and fair.

Moscow can only care less about what Washington says

Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was not ready to listen to US assessments of the past presidential election. The United States is a country that is de facto at war with Russia, so one should not expect any other assessments from Washington, he said.

"We strongly disagree with this assessment. Speaking to reporters late yesterday evening, the Russian President said that such assessments were quite expected and predictable," Peskov said.