Putin declares victory, Sunday: photo - EPA/Alexey Nikolsky
“I would not like to talk about electoral fraud, whether there was or whether there wasn't - it's not worth wondering about,” Buzek, who stood down as president of the EP at the beginning of the year, told Polish Radio on Monday.
“Because these elections were unfair from the start,” he said.
“If one of the candidates, Mr Yavlinsky, was not even allowed to register, if there was not access to the media, if there is no freedom of the press, it is hard to talk about any free elections,” he expanded.
Buzek revealed that he had spoken to prominent dissident and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov in the lead-up to the elections.
“He said to me that the tension is huge inside Russia, but only among those who are better off, that is 30 percent of society, no more, [and this group] is starting to realise that not everything is right in the country, in spite of money galore.”
Putin only managed to win 47 percent of the vote in Moscow, compared to an apparent 64 percent across Russia (as the last ballots came in).
Meanwhile, monitors with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have said that the elections were “clearly skewed” towards Putin and the result was “never in doubt”.
The point of elections is that the outcome should be uncertain," said OSCE spokesman Tonino Picula in a statement.
"This was not the case in Russia. There was no real competition and abuse of government resources ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never in doubt."
Protest
Army trucks have gathered outside the Kremlin in advance of protests planned for Monday evening.
The ITAR-Tass news agency says Russia’s Interior Ministry informs that some 12,000 police and troops will be on duty to maintain order in Moscow, a city which has seen mass protests in recent months against the government headed by Putin and outgoing president Medvedev.
Poland's former foreign minister Adam Rotfeld told Polish Radio that although he had predicted that Putin would win outright in the first round, the Russian leader “will emerge from these elections weakened."
Having served two consecutive terms as president, Putin was not able to stand in the 2008 election, and he backed fellow United Russia party member and erstwhile deputy prime minister Dimitri Medvedev, who obtained 71.2 percent of the vote in the election (7 percent more than Putin's current figure).
Putin had taken the post of prime minister in the interim, and Medvedev is now set to be granted this job, according to a pledge made by Putin. (nh/pg)