Kremlin will focus on economy and seeking to ease Western sanctions

Russian President Vladimir Putin, after winning the presidency for another six years, will focus on developing the country’s economy and seek talks with the West on easing sanctions, experts said.

With nearly 100 percent of the votes counted, the Central Election Commission announced that Putin, who has run Russia as president or prime minister since 1999, had won 76.68 percent of the vote. With more than 56 million votes, it was Putin’s biggest win and the largest by any post-Soviet Russian leader.

The victory will take Putin’s political dominance of Russia to nearly a quarter of a century, until 2024. Putin will be 71 at the end of his term.

In a late-night victory speech near Moscow’s Red Square, Putin told a cheering crowd the win was a vote of

As the world’s largest country, Russia has unique advantages in natural resources, but it needs much more strategic investment than other countries, Feng said.

Speaking of the speech delivered by Putin earlier this month, Feng said the Russian top leader spent more than half the time introducing powerful new weapons, which shows his attitude toward all the threats and challenges the country faces.

“However, even though Russia owns some high-tech weapon, it is unlikely to undertake a long-term arms race with the United States under the current economic status,” he said.

“Therefore we can foresee Russia may seek better relations with the US in Putin’s next 6-year term, especially over some issues of international concern, such as those in Ukraine, Syria and in the Korean Peninsula,” Feng said.

Feodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy in Russia, agrees. He said