CDU suffered heavy losses in two regional elections, including in home state of former leader Angela Merkel, where it polled just 4.9%

Speaking of EU sanctions, Kaja Kallas this morning in her condemnation of the Russian election fixing, also called for penalties against those who had helped stage the vote in occupied Ukraine.

She said she had “proposed measures against those facilitating these sham elections in occupied Ukrainian territories”.

European Parliament members have also deplored the vote held in “the world’s least-free territories” which they said were staged under martial law, “amid coercion, forced passportisation, door-to-door balloting in the presence of armed personnel and credible reports of grave human rights violations.”

More widely, the Duma vote had been held in the “most repressive environment” with “criminalisation and elimination of political opposition”, read a joint statement from senior Russia and Ukraine EP committee heads.

They noted the exclusion of any political competition – particularly the Yabloko party and jailing of its leaders in the lead-up to the vote.