According to the first official results showed on Sunday after polls closed, Vladimir Putin has won Russia's presidential election with 87.97% of the vote. Russian President Vladimir Putin has cemented his grip on power in a landslide election victory that has been widely criticized as lacking democratic legitimacy.
According to an exit poll by pollster the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), Putin won 87.8% of the vote, the highest ever result in Russia's post-Soviet history.
The Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) put Putin on 87%. First official results reportedly indicated the polls were accurate.
Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov finished second with just under 4%, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third, and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, partial results suggested.
Nationwide turnout was 74.22 percent when polls closed, election officials said, surpassing 2018 levels of 67.5 percent.
Some media reports say thousands of opponents protested at noon against Putin at polling stations inside Russia and abroad.
According to OVD-Info, a group that monitors crackdowns on dissent, at least 74 people were arrested on Sunday across Russia.
Reuters reports that over the previous two days, there were scattered incidents of protest as some Russians set fire to voting booths or poured green dye into ballot boxes. Opponents posted some pictures of ballots spoiled with slogans insulting Putin.
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.
Putin told supporters in a victory speech in Moscow that he would prioritize 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," said Putin.
