No grounds to question Syrian elections: Russian official

Russian government said Thursday that no grounds exist to doubt the legitimacy of the Syrian presidential elections held recently.

"We do not have grounds to doubt the legitimacy of these elections," Xinhua quoted Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich as saying, adding "although amid these conditions, they cannot be considered 100 percent perfect from the viewpoint of democratic standards".

Moscow is prepared to work with Syria's future government which will be formed after the presidential election, he said. "I believe that Syria's president-elect has all powers to form a government...We shall be prepared to work with any cabinet that may be formed."

The Group of Seven (G7) nations dismissed the Syrian presidential election as "sham" in a statement released Wednesday.

Syrian parliament announced Wednesday that incumbent President Bashar al-Assad has won a third seven-year term after garnering an overwhelming 88.7 percent of the votes in the presidential election held on Tuesday.

But the results have annoyed the country's opposition and their Western backers, who dismissed the election as a "farce".