The following is an exclusive translation of an interview with Lilia Shevtsova by the German newspaper Die Welt. Russia is committing suicide … … claims political analyst Lilia Shevtsova, because Putin is destroying state institutions DIE WELT: After European observers branded the Duma elections as unfair, they were accused of using their opinion to carry out a “mission from overseas”. What is your view on this? Lilia Shevtsova: The elections were anything but fair, because the election campaign itself was already unfair. The Kremlin’s United Russia party refused to take part in TV debates. Instead, President Putin and United Russia took over 97 percent of airtime in information programmes shown on national state television. The elections were illegally transformed into a referendum on Putin; the president remained in office even though he was running for the Duma. That is also illegal. Russian observers also complained of numerous violations of electoral law on polling day… There were thousands of violations, including the fact that voting by workers was monitored by their bosses. The Golos institute also recorded violations, as did observers from all parties, including those from the Communist Party, which were represented at 70 percent of the polling stations.