The Council of the European Union will impose restrictions on people it considers responsible for organizing what it called "sham elections" or for running candidates in the occupied territories, according to a statement published on the Council's website.
The measures will also target individuals Brussels deems responsible for undermining the possibility of holding free and fair elections in Russia, the statement said.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the organization of voting in those territories was "another blatant violation by Russia of international law, including the UN Charter, as well as of Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity." The statement specifically named annexed Crimea, Sevastopol and the occupied parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
The Council said the voting demonstrated "the continuing and deepening erosion of democracy in Russia." Kallas said the exclusion of Yabloko, which has an anti-war platform, from the federal list "further limited the choice of Russian voters." According to the EU's wording, Yabloko remains one of the last opposition forces in Russia and the only party with an anti-war platform.
"All that is left of democracy in Russia is an appearance," Kallas said.
The EU also noted separately that Russia did not invite OSCE observers to the elections. In Brussels's view, this deprived Russian voters and institutions of an impartial and independent assessment of the vote.
State Duma elections were held on September 18-20. According to preliminary counts by the Central Election Commission, United Russia will receive 355 of the 450 mandates - a constitutional majority. This would be the party's largest faction in its history.
Member of the European Parliament Sergei Lagodinsky said on Ekho that the new composition of the State Duma most likely will not be recognized as legitimate by the European Parliament either. On September 18, the PACE Platform for Dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces called on the international community not to recognize the new State Duma as a democratically elected and legitimate representative of Russians.