EU still recognises Putin as Russian president because member states have not reached consensus on this, says European Commission spokesman Stano.

The European Commission explained that the EU did not refuse to recognise Vladimir Putin as president of Russia because all member states could not reach a consensus on this issue.

This was stated by the spokesperson for the EU External Action Service, Peter Stano, at a briefing in Brussels, Censor.NET reports citing Ukrainian Pravda.

Stano said that the EU as such does not have the authority to recognise or not recognise anyone's authority, and traditionally such a decision is made by member states.

‘Of course, if 27 member states unanimously say that they do not recognise the legitimacy of a country's representative, as they did in the case of Syrian leader Assad or Belarusian dictator Lukashenko, then we can have this position.

In the case of Russia, there is no EU-wide position agreed by 27 countries that says we do not see Putin as a legitimate representative of Russia,’ Stano said.

Read more: Kirby: If Putin wants to protect Russian troops from being hit by Western weapons, he must withdraw them from Ukraine

‘The fact is that he is sitting in the Kremlin, and from the Kremlin he is leading the most violent and brutal aggression in the modern history of Europe, the aggression against Ukraine,’ the spokesman added.

Stano noted that the EU expressed a consensus position on the so-called ‘presidential elections’ in Russia in a statement of 18 March, which was agreed by 27 member states. In this statement, the EU criticised the Russian ‘elections’ as being held with numerous restrictions, without the participation of a real opposition and taking place, among other things, in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

‘So let me repeat - the EU's position on Belarus, Syria and Venezuela, for example, was agreed by 27 member states to determine how we view those people who remained in power... In the case of Russia... there is no common European position on whether we recognise Putin as a legitimate president,’ Stano said.

He also assured that the participation of several EU diplomats in Putin's so-called ‘inauguration’ on Tuesday did not call into question the EU's position on supporting Ukraine.