MOSCOW. March 18 (Interfax) - Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has dismissed calls not to recognize the legitimacy of Russia's presidential election as absurd.
"If one speaks about the illegitimacy of the elections in our country, it is obviously necessary to speak about the illegitimacy of the 87% of votes the population of our country cast for President Putin. This is absurd. This is how we treat it," Peskov told journalists when commenting on remarks by Alexei Navalny's widow Yulia, who has called on Western countries not to recognize the results of the Russian presidential election as legitimate.
"There are a lot of people who have already completely lost touch with their home country. Yulia Navalnaya, whom you've mentioned, is starting to ever more belong to this group of people who are losing their roots, losing connections with their Motherland, losing the understanding of the Motherland and are stopping feeling the pulse of their country," he said.