Putin takes record vote

Vladimir Putin was Monday set for another six years in power after his landslide victory in Russia's presidential election but so far only close allies have congratulated him as Moscow's relations with the West disintegrate.

Putin, who has ruled Russia for almost two decades, recorded his best election performance with 76.67% of the vote but rejected the possibility of staying in power indefinitely.

The opposition said the results were rigged, reporting ballot stuffing and other cases of alleged fraud as the Kremlin pushed for a high turnout to give greater legitimacy to Putin's historic fourth term.

Putin, who has extended his power until at least 2024 and is already Russia's longest-serving leader since Stalin, ruled out remaining president for life.

“Listen to me. It seems to me that what you are saying is a bit funny,” he told reporters Sunday night when asked if he saw himself running for president again in 2030.

“What, am I going to sit here until I am 100 years old? No.”

The Russian strongman ran against seven other candidates, but his most vocal critic Alexei Navalny was barred from the ballot for legal reasons and the final outcome was never in doubt.

“I see in this (result) the confidence and hope of our people,” Putin said in an address to a crowd of supporters on a square next to the Kremlin after exit polls put him on track for a resounding victory.

Turnout was at more than 67% as authorities used both the carrot and the stick to boost engagement in the polls.

Selfie competitions, giveaways, food festivals and children's entertainers were laid on at polling stations in a bid to create a festive atmosphere around the election.

But employees of state and private companies reported coming under pressure to vote.

According to central election commission data with 99.8% of ballots counted, Putin took 76.67% of the vote, well ahead of his nearest competitor Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin, who was on 11.79%.

Grudinin said the elections had been “dishonest”.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has lived in Russia after leaking classified information about the US government's surveillance programmes, tweeted a picture apparently showing ballot stuffing in a Russian school.

“The ballot stuffing seen today in Moscow and elsewhere in the Russian election is an effort to steal the influence of 140+ million people,” he said.

“Demand justice; demand laws and courts that matter.”

The election was held as Russia faces increasing isolation on the world stage over a spy poisoning in Britain and a fresh round of US sanctions just as it gears up for the football World Cup in the summer.

Among the few leaders to congratulate Putin so far was Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has just been handed a second term himself and has gained a path to indefinite rule after presidential term limits were lifted last week.

“China is willing to work with Russia to keep promoting China-Russia relations to a higher level, provide driving force for respective national development in both countries, and promote regional and global peace and tranquility,” Xi said.

In Latin America, the presidents of the leftist regimes in Venezuela and Bolivia both effusively congratulated Putin on his “overwhelming” victory.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also commended “the glorious Russian people for its display of civic duty” while Bolivia's Evo Morales said Putin's victory “guarantees geopolitical equilibrium and world peace before the onslaught of imperialism”.

Since first being elected president in 2000, Putin has stamped his total authority on the world's biggest country, muzzling opposition, putting television under state control and reasserting Moscow's standing abroad.

The 65-year-old former KGB officer used an otherwise lacklustre presidential campaign to emphasise Russia's role as a major world power, boasting of its “invincible” new nuclear weapons in a pre-election speech.

In the run-up to the vote, a new crisis broke out with the West as Britain implicated Putin in the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal with a Soviet-designed nerve agent.

In response, London expelled 23 Russian diplomats, prompting a tit-for-tat move by Moscow. Also this week, Washington hit Russia with sanctions for trying to influence the 2016 US election.

After his victory, Putin dismissed claims Russia was behind the poisoning in Britain as “drivel, rubbish, nonsense” but said Moscow was ready to cooperate with London in the probe.

The president has said he will use his fourth term to address a litany of domestic problems including widespread poverty and poor healthcare.

NAMPA/AFP