Vladimir Putin won his fifth term with more than 87% of the votes, a record number, in the presidential elections, the Central Election Commission of Russia said yesterday.
Russia’s Central Election Commission reported that with nearly 100% of all electoral districts counted, Vladimir Putin won 87.29% of the vote.
The head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, said almost 76 million voters voted for Putin, the highest number of votes ever. The presidential elections began on Friday and ended on Sunday.
With these results, Putin achieves his biggest electoral victory since coming to power in 2000, despite the war in Ukraine and economic sanctions from the West.
The election is expected to keep him in power until 2030, the year in which he will turn 77, with the possibility of an additional term until 2036, due to a constitutional change made in 2020.
The results came after Putin unleashed the country’s toughest crackdown on opposition and free speech since Soviet times.
Only three token candidates, and no one who opposed his war in Ukraine, were allowed to run against Putin as he sought another six years in power.
Putin has led Russia as president or prime minister since December 1999, a tenure marked by international military aggression and growing intolerance of dissent.
His fiercest political opponent, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month, and other critics are in prison or in exile.
The elections have been marked by drone attacks and incursions on the Ukrainian border, which have caused several deaths and led Putin to accuse Ukraine of trying to torpedo his re-election.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong-un and the presidents of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, quickly congratulated Putin on his victory.
So did the leaders of the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, and Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyayev, while the West considered it a sham.