OREANDA-NEWS. The European Union as a whole recognizes the results of the parliamentary elections in Russia, but a number of European politicians will consider them illegitimate, believes Tatyana Romanova, Associate Professor at the Department of European Studies at St. Petersburg State University.

According to her, the statements of the European Parliament in terms of the EU's foreign policy are only advisory in nature, but express the most critical line in relation to Russia.

“I don’t think that the European Union will recognize the elections as invalid, illegal, illegitimate, but, on the other hand, some EU politicians will express such a point of view. In this case, the European Parliament gave a preview, a demonstration that such a position is possible. I don’t think, that she will be dominant, but this view will also be ", - said the political scientist in a commentary on RIA Novosti.

The European Parliament at its plenary session on Thursday approved a "tough" report on EU relations with Russia, proposed by the former Prime Minister of Lithuania Andrius Kubilius. This voluminous document proposes to call on the EU to expand sanctions against Russia, to think about strengthening the European defense potential to "contain" the Russian Federation, to develop a strategy to reduce the EU's dependence on Russian energy resources and metal supplies as much as possible, and also to prepare for non-recognition of the results of the parliamentary elections in Russia in the event that "if they are found to be dishonest and carried out in violation of democratic principles."

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commenting on the report, said that Moscow would firmly rebuff interference in national processes, and noted that the purpose of such a document was to exacerbate the already difficult relations between Russia and the EU. There was no complete unanimity in the European Parliament on the report on the elections in Russia, and some of the MEPs can “collect the remnants of common sense,” said Vladimir Chizhov, permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the EU.