Vladimir Putin sailed to electoral victory on Sunday, winning a huge popular mandate for a fourth presidential term at a time of escalating tensions between Russia and the West.
In a widely expected outcome, the Central Election Commission, with just in excess of 70 per cent of the votes counted, announced that Putin had won 75.9 per cent of the vote, a marked increase on the 64 per cent he won at the last election, in 2012.
None of the seven candidates running against the incumbent president posed a serious threat. Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most popular opposition leader, was barred from the ballot. Opposition groups said the election was marred by widespread fraud, but the Russian election commission said irregularities had not significantly altered the result of the vote.
Mr Putin’s victory will extend his time in office until 2024, when he will be 71 and Russia’s longest-serving leader since Joseph Stalin. During the election campaign he pledged to continue to boost Russia’s military might if he won a fourth term, to defend the country against hostile outside forces.
In his annual state-of-the-nation speech early this month he unveiled an array of advanced nuclear weaponry that Kremlin critics say will unleash a new cold-war arms race.
Skripal poisoning
Tensions with the West, already badly strained by the Kremlin’s aggressive policies in Ukraine and alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, have reached breaking point this month following the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in the UK.
Russian officials have denied involvement in the attack on Sergei Skripal, in Wiltshire, and cast the UK accusations as a provocation designed to upset the election campaign.
On Sunday, Putin dismissed British accusations of Russia’s involvement in the poisoning as “nonsense”, but added that Moscow is ready to co-operate with London in the investigation.
On Sunday night a jubilant crowd of Putin supporters flocked to a square near the Kremlin to celebrate the election victory. Russians had consolidated around the national leader in response to outside pressure, said Andrei Kondrashov, press secretary for Mr Putin’s election campaign team. “Every time Russia faces indiscriminate and unproven accusations about something or other , it makes the Russian people unite around a central force. Today that central force is definitely Putin.” Additional reporting: PA and Reuters