“Putin removes his political opponents, controls the media, and then crowns himself the winner. This is not democracy,” he added.
The Kremlin has presented the weekend election—mmarred by ballot spoilers and Ukrainian bombardments of border regions—aas proof Russians back Putin’s assault on Ukraine.
Cameron also cited the death of Putin’s main political rival Alexei Navalny as evidence of the extent of Putin’s repression.
“The death of Alexei Navalny just weeks before the election was a tragic reminder of the severity of political repression in Russia today.”
Russia should “immediately release all political prisoners,” including British-Russian dual-national Vladimir Kara-Murza, he added.
Opposition politician Kara-Murza, 42, was jailed last April for 25 years—the harshest sentence so far for speaking out against the war in Ukraine.
He was charged with “treason” after using a speech in the United States to say Russia had committed “war crimes” against Ukraine.
Kara-Murza has serious health problems, which his lawyers say were due to two poisoning attempts orchestrated by Russia’s FSB security service in 2015 and 2017.