MOSCOW, March 15 Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said in an interview, what difficulties had to be encountered during the preparation for voting in the Russian presidential elections abroad.
«You asked a question about what difficulties you had to deal with due to the positions of unfriendly countries. Well, firstly, we learned, as you understand, about their global response, about the reconfirmation of their obligations (on the elections — ed.) literally back to back,» she said.
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«This, of course, created certain problems and very big problems,» — she shared.
“The second point we need to remember is that Russian embassies and consulates in unfriendly countries were largely reduced due to the expulsion of our diplomats,” Zakharova continued. She added that “as we understand, this expulsion, including in recent months, was also associated with Russia’s holding of elections, simply to complicate the work of our foreign missions.” Zakharova also recalled that “in recent years, a number of unfriendly regimes have come out with demands or simply announced their decisions to close Russian, in particular consular points, in those cities that were densely populated (by Russians),” she said.
«In parallel with the expulsion of Russian diplomats and the closure of Russian consular offices and the infliction of various damages from material to psychological pressure or political persecution, they also announced threats in the cyber sphere,» she noted. Zakharova explained that “that is why the Central Election Commission, after calculating all the options, risks and opportunities, decided not to conduct online voting abroad.” And that is why Russians abroad can vote in person.
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