President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe Leendert Verbeek called on Russia to refrain from plans to implement plans to hold "

“That would mean that President Putin would continue his imperialist policies that brought Europe a war that has never happened since 1945 on such a scale.. Therefore, I call on the Russian authorities to refrain from such plans,” said Congress President Leendert Verbeck..

According to the statement of the organization, the Congress has always loudly and clearly spoken out in favor of preserving the territorial integrity of the member states of the Council of Europe.

Russia is no longer a member of the Council of Europe. But Ukraine is - and we stand united behind this country and its people, and we will do our best to continue to support Ukraine and help its local and regional authorities,” Verbeck said..

He stressed that if Russia uses the referendum, which in itself is a valuable democratic tool, to further intensify its aggressive policy towards a member state of the Council of Europe, it will be an abuse of this tool and a further attempt to destroy democracy and governance, and the results of such “referendums.

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Recall that the Russians repeatedly postponed the date of the " At first it was supposed to take place in early May. After some time, Kherson collaborator Kirill Stremousov generally suggested that this would happen " But later it was decided to hold it on September 11 - along with local elections in Russia.

According to Russian media, the Russian-controlled occupation administration in the Zaporozhye region has already issued an order to hold a "