Sputnik: Please, tell us about your experience as an observer at the Russian presidential elections. What is your impression of it?
Markus-Cornel Frohnmaier: We had the opportunity to witness the elections in six polling stations in Moscow. There was a high voter turnout. People had the opportunity to vote free, secret, equal and direct and we didn't witness any problems or violations of the electoral process. So, for us it was a really interesting experience to observe the elections in Russia.
READ MORE: Putin: Russia Will Not Participate in Arms Race (VIDEO)
Sputnik: What was your impression of the technical side of it?
Markus-Cornel Frohnmaier: The difference to the German election was that you're also using these electronic scanners. That was a new thing for us, of course, but I think that creates an opportunity to make it to the result faster. You could see that these scanners were observed with cameras, so it was possible to see if someone tried to manipulate the electoral process. So, I think it was an opportunity to see this kind of new election process.
Sputnik: More than 15 hundred foreign observers were accredited to monitor these elections in Russia. It certainly points to the fact that the issue of transparency was taken by Russia very seriously. Do you agree with it?
Markus-Cornel Frohnmaier: Yes, of course. I mean we had an opportunity to talk with observers from all over the world. And we could see that for Russia it was really important that a lot of people from all over the world had the opportunity to observe this election process. You know, we could go to every polling station we want, we could ask about everything, we could compare with our standards and, as I told you, in our opinion, everything was well.
Sputnik: Did other observers share your impressions of the whole process?
READ MORE: Putin Has Coherent, Impressive Plan for Russia's Development - Kremlin
Markus-Cornel Frohnmaier: We talked about this in our delegation and I think that other delegations had the same impressions as we have.
Sputnik: Vladimir Putin has already outlined some of the major tasks he is going to address in the near future, the relations with the EU being at the top of the list. Should we expect any changes in his cooperation with Angela Merkel and Germany's new coalition government?
Markus-Cornel Frohnmaier: That's up to the German government. I mean we could see in the past that Angela Merkel's party and also the Social Democrats are not willing to rest in good relations with Russia. I mean, they continue the sanction policy against Russia. And our party, the AfD, is the only party in the German Bundestag who tries to improve the relations with Russia at the moment, because, in our opinion, it's really important to have a good partnership with Russia and we could see in the past all the time when our countries had a good relationship with each other, both countries could benefit.
The views and opinions expressed by Markus-Cornel Frohnmaier are those of the expert and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
