Putin Congratulates El-Sisi, Egypt’s new president-elect

A message posted on the Russian President’s website on May 30th said that Vladimir Putin called up Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to congratulate him on his “convincing” victory in winning the Egyptian presidential election. “Both leaders expressed confidence that the rich tradition of friendly relations between Russia and Egypt will continue to develop in all areas,” the statement read, adding that El-Sisi said he’s “ready for close cooperation with Russia on bilateral issues and on the international agenda.”

Putin was strenuously criticized by the White House back in February for wishing El-Sisi luck in running for president of Egypt when the latter was visiting Moscow. El-Sisi had not even officially announced that he would run at the time. “We don’t endorse a candidate and don’t think it’s, quite frankly, up to the United States or to Mr Putin to decide who should govern Egypt,” a US State Department deputy spokesperson said at the time, “It’s up to the Egyptian people to decide.”

El-Sisi won over 90 percent of votes cast in the 3-day presidential vote in Egypt that concluded last Wednesday, according to preliminary counts, but not everyone found that “convincing” or the will of the Egyptian people.

Iranian news network Press TV interviewed Egyptian activist Hazem Salem, who said: “The fact is… Sisi [wants] the number of votes and turnouts that Morsi had. They wanted to get to 25 million votes no matter what and they wanted to give him at least 90 percent of that to give him legitimacy. This very blunt rigging of the elections shows the plan for Sisi to rule and the orders he will be following is not made by the Egyptian people.”

El-Sisi will take office on June 7th. On that same day, Petro Poroshenko will be taking office as the new president of the Ukraine. The 49-year-old billionaire businessman won 54% of the vote in the Ukraine’s election on May 25th. Poroshenko has vowed to restore peace to the region and plans to hold talks with Putin soon.

In the meantime, all eyes will be on France for the upcoming D-Day celebrations. U.S. President Barack Obama will be traveling to Warsaw, Poland, where he will hold talks with Poroshenko and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski. He will be traveling to France for the D-Day celebrations. Putin will also be attending the D-Day events. PBS reports that it is the first time that the U.S. and Russian leaders will come face to face since unrest broke out in the Ukraine, and the fear is that these tensions will “intrude on, if not overshadow, the commemorations of the Normandy landings by allied forces.”

As for that recent flap where Prince Charles compared Putin to Hitler, the Daily Mail says that there’s little chance of those two coming face to face in France.