INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Nearly one month after Russian President Vladimir Putin was re-elected to a fifth term, the European Parliament remains unable to agree on a
with Ukraine, claimed 87% of the vote in a tightly controlled election that saw widespread reports of voter fraud and
moderate forces balk at that step, as it would effectively mean abandoning any chance of negotiating with representatives from
Petar Tanev, freelance adviser to the Bulgarian delegation to the EU Parliament, told The Moscow Times.However, there is still a chance that
a resolution could be issued, Sergei Lagodinsky, a German MEP (Greens/EFA), told The Moscow Times."I believe that we are obliged to adopt a
We have to say in this way that the elections were illegitimate
The process itself was illegitimate, also because of fraud and voting in the occupied territories," Lagodinsky said.Going further by
refusing to recognize Putin's new term requires political will and consensus, he said."Naturally, there are those who would love to write
that the Russian president is illegitimate
I am more cautious in this matter," Lagodinsky said.The European Parliament has no authority to regulate the EU's foreign policy, and its
policymaking.Early talks advocating for the EU to not recognize the Russian presidential election started in early 2024
At the time, Andrius Kubilius, the European Parliament's special rapporteur on Russia (Lithuania, European People's Party), had recommended
resolution, it called on Council of Europe member states to recognize Putin "as illegitimate after the end of his current presidential term
and to cease all contact with him, except for humanitarian contact and in the pursuit of peace."There are two mainstream views shared by
both the centrists and radicals in the EU Parliament, said Ivan Preobrazhensky, an expert on Central and Eastern Europe."The position that
said, they are joined by the forces in the EU Parliament who share the European Commission's view: that negotiating with Putin is
inevitable."Their position is that if the radicals sell their decision, it will allow them to communicate neither with Putin's foreign
