Putin declared president with record vote tally
Russia's Central Election Commission has confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has won his fifth term with a record number of votes.
The results yesterday came after Putin unleashed the country's harshest crackdown on the opposition and free speech since Soviet times.
Only three token candidates - and no-one who opposes his war in Ukraine - were allowed to run against Putin as he sought another six years in power.
Putin hailed overwhelming preliminary results as an indication of "trust" and "hope" in him - while critics saw them as another reflection of the preordained nature of the election.
He said at a meeting with his campaign staff after the polls closed: "Of course, we have lots of tasks ahead.
"But I want to make it clear for everyone: When we were consolidated, no one has ever managed to frighten us, to suppress our will and our self-conscience. They failed in the past and they will fail in the future."
Putin has led Russia as president or prime minister since December 1999, a tenure marked by international military aggression and an increasing intolerance for dissent.
Russia's Central Election Commission said that with nearly 100 per cent of all precincts counted, Putin got 87.29 per cent of the vote.
Central Election Commission chief Ella Pamfilova said that nearly 76 million voters cast their ballots for Putin, his highest vote tally ever.
North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un along with the presidents of Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela quickly congratulated Putin on his victory, as did the leaders of the exsoviet Central Asian nations of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, while the West dismissed the vote as a sham.
The UK'S Foreign Secretary David Cameron wrote on X: "This is not what free and fair elections look like."
In the tightly controlled environment, Alexei Navalny's associates urged those unhappy with Putin or the war to go to the polls at noon on Sunday - and lines outside a number of polling stations both inside Russia and at its embassies around the world appeared to swell at that time.
Among those heeding call was Yulia Navalnaya, Mr Navalny's widow, who spent more than five hours in the line at the Russian Embassy in Berlin.
She said she wrote her late husband's name on her ballot.
Asked whether she had a message for Putin, Mrs Navalnaya replied: "Please stop asking for messages from me or from somebody for Mr Putin.
"There could be no negotiations and nothing with Mr. Putin, because he's a killer, he's a gangster."
But Putin brushed off the effectiveness of the apparent protest.
He said : "There were calls to come vote at noon. And this was supposed to be a manifestation of opposition. Well, if there were calls to come vote, then... I praise this."
Putin referenced Mr Navalny by name for the first time in years at a news conference, saying he had been ready to release him in a swap for unidentified inmates in Western custody days before the opposition leader's death.