Vladimir Putin has won another six-year term as Russian president, election polls showed on Sunday, paving the way for the former hardline spy to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than 200 years.
The 71-year-old’s victory in 1 was never in doubt because all of his main opponents were dead, in prison or in exile, and authorities cracked down relentlessly on those who publicly spoke out against the Kremlin or its military offensive in Ukraine.
In January, government pollster VTsIOM predicted that after polls closed in Russia’s westernmost region, Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, Putin had won an easy victory with 87 percent of the vote.
The three-day election was marked by an increase in deadly bombings in Ukraine, incursions into Russian territory by pro-Kiev sabotage groups, and vandalism at polling stations.
The Kremlin had portrayed the election as an opportunity for the Russians to support the large-scale military operation in Ukraine, where voting is also taking place in Russian-controlled areas.
Kiev and its allies criticised the vote as a farce, and President Volodymyr Zelensky called Putin a “dictator” who was “drunk with power.”
“There is no evil he will not commit to prolong his personal power,” Zelensky said in a message on social media.
