U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken blocked the release of a statement by the Group of Seven (G7) condemning the presidential election in Russia, la Repubblica newspaper reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The communique’s text was reportedly agreed upon by Italy’s G7 presidency and U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Mr Blinken’s decision to block the document was allegedly motivated by his desire not to give Moscow an excuse to interfere in the U.S. presidential election scheduled for November in response, the newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The report said such divergence of views between the U.S. National Security Council and the U.S. Department of State prevented the final adoption of the G7 statement.
Mr Putin was reelected president with 87.28 per cent of the vote in a three-day voting marathon last week.
The three other presidential candidates came far behind, each polling under five per cent.
On Monday, U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said that the Russian presidential election had been “neither free nor fair.”
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, when asked about the legitimacy of the presidential election in Russia, said that Mr Putin is the leader of Russia.
Mr Sullivan also said the reality is such that Putin is the president of Russia, adding that the United States was prepared to deal with this fact.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow categorically disagreed with some U.S. assessments claiming that the presidential election in Russia held over the weekend had not been free.
Such assessments were expected from a state involved in the conflict in Ukraine, Peskov added.
(Sputnik/NAN)
