Putin addresses Moscow crowd after election win
MOSCOW (AFP) – President Vladimir Putin on Monday hailed the “return” to Russia of annexed Ukrainian territories, after winning an election slammed as illegitimate by Western powers.
The ex-spy won over 87 percent of the vote in a three-day ballot that included voting in parts of Ukraine held by Russian forces.
Moscow has presented the weekend presidential election as proof that Russians have rallied around Putin more than two years into the Ukraine offensive.
Putin’s victory is widely expected to further tighten his grip on Russia, where dissent is no longer tolerated under fast-accelerating repression.
In power since the last day of 1999, he is now on course to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than two centuries.
“Hand in hand, we will move forward and this will make us stronger... Long live Russia!” Putin told a crowd at a Red Square pop concert to mark 10 years since Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.
Putin boasted of a new rail link in areas of Ukraine captured by Russian forces, saying those regions had “declared their desire to return to their native family.”
He appeared at the concert alongside the three candidates who ran against him after hosting them at a Kremlin meeting in which they all congratulated him.
All of the 71-year-old’s major opponents are dead, in prison or in exile, and voting took place a month after Putin’s main challenger Alexei Navalny died in prison.
Authorities had called on Russians to take part in the vote out of patriotic duty.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich is the foundation of our country,” said Viktoria, a 23-year-old IT worker.
Elena, a 64-year-old economist, said she was not surprised by the result “because I think that any citizen who respects our country voted for Putin.”
The three-day vote – also held in occupied Ukraine – was marred by spoiled ballots and Ukrainian bombardments.
Thousands responded to the opposition’s call to protest the polls by forming long queues at polling stations both inside and outside Russia.