PRESIDENT
VLADIMIR PUTIN has won a resounding victory in the
general election in Russia, which has however been criticized as lacking
democratic legitimacy.
Speaking to reporters
after the election, Putin did not hesitate to throw a spade at Western nations.
"No matter who or
how much they want to scare us, no matter who or how much they want to stop us,
our will, our understanding - no one has ever succeeded in something like that
in history," Putin said in a speech from his campaign headquarters early
Monday morning.
"It didn't work now
and it won't work later. Never.”
Shortly after the last
polls closed on Sunday, early results showed the conclusion everyone expected:
that Putin would extend his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years.
According to the Russian
Election Commission, Putin had 87 percent of the vote and about 60 percent of
the polling stations counted. The result means Putin, 71, will overtake Joseph
Stalin to become Russia's longest-reigning leader in more than 200 years.
Communist candidate
Nikolay Kharitonov came second with less than 4 percent, Vladislav Davankov
third, and nationalist scholar Leonid Slutsky fourth, preliminary results
showed.
National participation in
the election was 74.22 percent when polling stations closed, election officials
said, surpassing 2018's 67.5 percent.
Putin's victory was not
in doubt as his critics are largely in prison, exile or dead, while public
criticism of his leadership has been contained.
Putin's main rival,
Alexey Navalny, died in prison in the Arctic last month.
For Putin, a former KGB
lieutenant colonel who first rose to power in 1999, the results are meant to
show the West that its leaders will have to deal with a strengthened Russia,
whether in war or peace, for years to come.
The United States says
the election was not free and fair.
"There is no doubt
that the election is not free or fair considering how Putin imprisoned
political opponents and prevented others from running against him," said
the spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House.
British Foreign Minister
David Cameron said in a post on the X social network that the vote "is not
what a free and fair election looks like".
In Ukraine, President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, "This electoral fraud is unacceptable and cannot
have any legitimacy".
The election came more
than two years after Putin's February 2022 all-out invasion of Ukraine,
Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.
On Sunday, thousands of
Putin's opponents demonstrated against him, although there was no independent
count of how many of Russia's 114 million voters participated in the
demonstration.
Navalny's supporters had
called for anti-Putin demonstrations.
In his press conference,
Putin mentioned Navalny's name for the first time since his death, saying he
had supported a proposal to free him in exchange for prisoners in Western
countries.
"The person who was
talking to me had not finished his sentence and I said 'I agree'," Putin
said.
Putin was first appointed
as interim president upon the retirement of former Russian President Boris
Yeltsin. He then won his first presidential election in March 2000 and a second
term in 2004. After serving two terms as president, Putin switched to prime
minister in 2008 to avoid a constitutional ban on serving more than two consecutive
terms as head of state.
But he returned to the
presidency in 2012 and won a fourth term in 2018.