A large number of countries are boycotting Putin’s inauguration ceremony

Spokesperson Matthew Miller in the US State Department says that the US does not want anyone present, and that the Americans do not consider the latest election in the country to be free or fair.

Britain and Canada have also said they will not attend the ceremony, which comes a day following Russia announced it would conduct new nuclear exercises.

Putin was declared the overwhelming winner of the March election, just weeks following his most prominent opponent, Alexei Navalny, died in prison. Western countries have referred to the election, in which Putin ran without real opponents, as unfree and undemocratic.

Ukraine sees no reason to recognize Putin as a democratically elected president, writes the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement. Tuesday’s ceremony aims to create “an illusion of legality for the almost lifelong period in power of a person who has turned Russia into a martial state and the ruling regime into a dictatorship”, writes the ministry.

The Kremlin has stated that the heads of all foreign diplomatic missions in the country have been invited. An EU spokesperson tells Reuters that the union’s ambassador to Russia will not participate, while a European diplomat tells the same news agency that 20 member states are boycotting the ceremony, but that seven others are expected to send representatives.

In addition to France, Hungary and Slovakia are also expected to participate. The Baltic countries no longer have envoys in Russia and will not be represented.