PT publishes greeting note after Vladimir Putin’s re-election in Russia

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The PT’s Secretary of International Relations, Romanio Pereira, published on the party’s website a note welcoming the Russian presidential elections, which won current president Vladimir Putin. The governor was elected for the fifth time, with 87% of the votes, ten percentage points more than in 2018. The candidate’s victory was taken for granted in an election without real opponents.

The voting lasted three days and saw a record turnout of 74.22% of Russians at the polls, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC). In the note, Pereira highlighted the “impressive participation” of more than 87 million voters in the country.

“This historic achievement highlights the importance of voluntary voting in Russia,” he said in the note.

According to the government’s Communications Secretariat (Secom), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) sent a letter recognizing President Putin’s victory.

PT website welcomed the re-elected president of Russia, Vladimir Putin — Photo: Reproduction

The final days before the election saw a series of resistance movements in Russia and around the world, called “Noon without Putin”. Hundreds of people have been detained in the country since Friday, when the elections began, for acts of vandalism at electoral colleges, and amid an increase in Ukrainian bombings and incursions by pro-Ukrainian groups into Russian territory. This Sunday alone, 85 people were arrested according to the human rights group OVD-Info.

The acts were called by opponent Alexei Navalny before his death last month, in circumstances that were still unclear, and were encouraged by his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, who spent several hours in line to vote at the Russian embassy in Berlin this Sunday. Like her, hundreds of Russians in the diaspora joined the protest in countries such as Brazil, France, Australia, Japan, Armenia, Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom.

In 2018, Navalny was prevented from running because of a conviction in a corruption case. This year, journalist Yekaterina Duntsova, who advocated the end of the war in Ukraine and the release of all political prisoners, and peace activist Boris Nadejdin, were disqualified due to alleged inconsistencies highlighted by the Central Election Commission.

The climate in Russia that goes to the polls in 2024 is different from 2018. In addition to the effects of the war in Ukraine, an issue that permeates everyone’s lives but whose public criticism is vetoed, the authoritarian arms of the Kremlin were felt more force against dissidents.

To Mr Dmitry Medvedev, President United Russia

Dear companions,—

We followed with great interest the development of the recent presidential election process in Russia, which resulted in the re-election of President Vladimir Putin. With an impressive turnout of more than 87 million voters, representing 77% of the country’s electorate, this historic feat highlights the importance of voluntary voting in Russia. We congratulate the United Russia Party for the impressive result that guaranteed President Putin’s victory with more than 87% of the votes. We renew our commitment to strengthening our bonds of partnership and friendship, working together towards a fairer, multilateral and plural world. We send our warmest greetings to Russia and its people at this important and special moment for the country.

Romanio Pereira, Secretary of International Relations

This is not the first time that the party has shown closeness to the Russian government online. In 2022, the party’s profile in the Senate made a controversial post on its profile on X (formerly Twitter). In a note, the acronym said it condemned “the long-term US policy of aggression against Russia and the continued expansion of NATO towards Russian borders”. Shortly after being published, the post was deleted from the social network, which did not prevent internet users from recovering the post and contesting its position.

On X (formerly Twitter), former senator Arthur Virgílio (no party) criticized the fact that President Lula sent a letter to President Vladimir Putin for his victory in the Russian election. “A message was sent congratulating Putin on his electoral ‘victory’, of course knowing that the Russian ‘elections’ are more false and farcical than a R$11.00 bill”, and he added: “I’m curious: you congratulated the other dictator, your friend, Nicolás Maduro, for the ‘electoral’ victory of a single candidate?”

Federal deputy Adriana Ventura (NOVO-SP) echoed the criticism. “Lula welcoming Putin’s reelection in Russia doesn’t surprise me given the fetish he has for dictatorships, but every time it happens it disgusts me,” she published on X.

“How Lula likes dictators! And the more repressive he likes them, the more”, exclaimed former deputy Roberto Freire, former president of Cidadania, also on social media.

After a series of criticisms, in 2021 the PT deleted a note published on its social networks that celebrated the re-election of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. In the post, the party had classified the election, rejected by the governments of the main Western democracies, as “a great popular and democratic demonstration”. Opponents and left-wing activists attacked the party’s statement and classified the position as an error.

The elections that gave Ortega victory, according to official figures with 75% of the votes, were held after a series of arrests of opponents, including Sandinista dissidents and seven possible opponents in the dispute, including his main opponent, Cristiana Chamorro.