Russia President Vladimir Putin Wins Elections; to Rule For Fourth Time

The major goal for Russian authorities is producing a big turnout that will hand Putin the legitimacy he craves and provide a convincing mandate for his fourth term.

Pre-election polls have placed Putin, the country’s longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, as a clear front-runner, reports CNN.

Exit polls are not final, and official results are gradually being released.

Chinese President Xi Jinping casts his ballot at the seventh plenary session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China March 19, 2018.

Asked if Putin controls this “gang”, Khodorkovsky replied: “Until about three or four years ago, I would have said unequivocally “yes”. On Sunday he lashed out at Ms Sobchak, accusing her of accepting a huge amount of money to stand in the election, in which she had been used as an “instrument of Putin” and as “a caricature liberal candidate”.

With Putin guaranteed to win another term despite facing seven challengers, authorities are conducting get-out-the-vote efforts to ensure a good turnout. So Putin’s fourth term would have to be his last in that succession.

Irina Konovalova, the head of the election commission for the Moscow region, says all ballots in the box were declared invalid.

Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent Golos centre, told the AP on Saturday the group has also recorded smaller complaints, such as gimmicks like discounted potatoes for people who vote, or schools holding special performances on Election Day to lure parents to an onsite voting station. The Central Election Commission said that with about a third of the ballots counted, more than 73.1 percent were for Putin.

His critics have called the election a farce and urged voters to boycott, but millions of Russians hail the 65-year-old former KGB officer for defending their proud nation from a hostile outside world.

The result mark a vindication of Putin’s tough stance towards the West, his loyalists said.

But in making sure no one can compete with him, no political personality is now popular enough to succeed Putin.

Lusiya Shtein, a 21-year-old political activist, sees the past 18 years as the era of Putin and “his bandit friends”.

When Stepan Mikhailov, a 19-year-old linguistics student, talks about his lifetime spent under Russian President Vladimir Putin, a troubled look passes over his face. I would have like to have had an option. Some Russians have reported being pressured by employers to show up and vote.

Some 145,000 observers were monitoring the presidential vote Sunday, including 1500 foreigners, and they and ordinary Russians reported hundreds of problems.

People came together. No other country in the world has such open and transparent elections.

There was little fanfare in the campaign period and Russian news was dominated by developments in political crises between Russia and Western powers.

Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal “doesn’t affect” the campaign for Sunday’s election, which he called Russia’s top priority.

On Friday Russia said it could hit back at Britain at “any minute” with its own raft of punitive measures. After declaring victory Sunday, Putin flatly denied Moscow played any part in it.

“People are put in a situation where they have no-one to choose from”, he said.

“I (found out) about that in the media and the first thing that came to my mind was that if it’s a military-grade agent, they would have died instantly on the spot”.

Britain’s key allies have closed ranks against Putin after British Prime Minister Theresa May announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high-level contacts, among other measures. He offered no evidence but pledged that Russian Federation would retaliate against “the missiles and launchers used”.

He has promised to use his new term to beef up Russia’s defenses against the West and to raise living standards.

Russian authorities had appealed to patriotic feelings by holding Sunday’s election on the anniversary of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Members of a local election commission prepare a polling station ahead of Russia’s presidential election in Simferopol, Crimea.