Putin addresses Red Square crowd after election win
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin hailed the ‘return’ to Russia of annexed Ukrainian territories on Monday at a concert on Red Square after winning an election blasted as illegitimate by Western powers.
The ex-spy won over 87 percent of the vote in a threeday ballot which 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 fastaccelerating 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 the crowd attending a 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.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin’s victory showed Russians were consolidating “around his path”, calling it ‘an exceptionally perfect result’.
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, 23, an IT worker at a state company as she headed to the Red Square concert.
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 election by forming long queues at polling stations — both inside and outside Russia.
Yulia Navalnaya — who has vowed to continue her late husband Alexei’s work — queued with crowds in Berlin Sunday and said she had written his name on her ballot paper.
Moscow had warned Russians not to take part in the protests and on Monday dismissed the opposition.
Moscow has regularly blasted the hundreds of thousands of Russians who fled their country in the aftermath of the Ukraine offensive as traitors.
Ballots were also spoiled by green dye and there were several incidents of voting booths being set on fire.
Putin on Sunday warned that Russians who spoiled their ballots ‘have to be dealt with’ and dismissed opposition protests as having ‘no effect’.