Germany says Russian presidential election not legitimate

The German government does not recognize the legitimacy of the Russian presidential election, German government's spokesperson Christiane Hoffman said during a briefing, Report informs via foreign media.

"At the moment we don't have a dialogue with Vladimir Putin, so it's not a question right now," she said, answering the question of how the authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany intend to call Putin by title - "president or governor".

"But I made it clear that we do not recognize these elections as legitimate," said Hoffman.

The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, Sebastian Fischer, for his part, said that the foreign policy department would call the Russian leader simply Putin, as it had done before.