Ignore Putin’s fake referendums and keep helping Ukraine
Phoney polls conducted at gunpoint do not make Ukrainian land Russian
When the result of a vote is announced as 99% for something, you can conclude that the ballot was rigged and the riggers want you to know it. So it was this week with the sham referendums that President Vladimir Putin’s men illegally organised in four partly occupied provinces of Ukraine. Accosted on their doorsteps by men with guns, residents “agreed” that the invading power, Russia, should annex their land. To be fair, the 99% was recorded only in Donetsk, one half of the Donbas region. In Luhansk, the other bit, support was lukewarm: only 98%. And in Kherson and Zaporizhia provinces the vote was a nail-biter: Yes was in the high 80s or low 90s.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Baloney ballots”
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