Putin set to break

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia’s election, cementing his already tight grip on power in a victory he said showed Moscow had been right to stand up to the West and send its troops into Ukraine.

For Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who first rose to power in 1999, Sunday’s (local time) result is intended to underscore to the West its leaders will have to reckon with an emboldened Russia, whether in war or in peace, for many more years to come.

The outcome means Mr Putin, 71, will easily secure a new six-year term that would enable him to overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longestserving leader for more than 200 years.

Mr Putin won 87.8 per cent of the vote, the highest ever result in Russia’s post-Soviet history, according to an exit poll by pollster the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM). The Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) put Putin on 87 percent. First official results indicated the polls were accurate.

The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other nations have said the vote was neither free nor fair due to the imprisonment of political opponents and censorship.

Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov came second with just under 4 per cent, newcomer Vladislav Davankov was third, and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, results suggested.

Mr Putin told supporters in a victory speech in Moscow that he would prioritise resolving tasks associated with what he called Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and would strengthen the Russian military.

“We have many tasks ahead. But when we are consolidated no matter who wants to intimidate us, suppress us - nobody has ever succeeded in history, they have not succeeded now, and they will not succeed ever in the future,” Mr Putin said.

Supporters chanted “Putin, Putin, Putin” when he appeared on stage and “Russia, Russia, Russia” after he had delivered his acceptance speech.

Inspired by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison last month, thousands of opponents protested at noon against Mr Putin at polling stations inside Russia and abroad.

Mr Putin told reporters he regarded Russia’s election as democratic and said the Navalny-inspired protest against him had no effect on the election’s outcome.

In his first comments on his death, he also said that Navalny’s passing had been a “sad event” and confirmed that he had been ready to do a prisoner swap involving the opposition politician.

When asked by a reporter from the US TV network NBC whether his re-election was democratic, Putin criticised the US political and judicial systems.

“The whole world is laughing at what is happening (in the United States),” he said. “This is just a disaster, not a democracy.