Russian President Vladimir Putin has cemented his grip on power in a landslide election victory that handed him a fifth term as Russian president.
Election officials declared results which gave Putin more than 87% of the vote, though the process has been widely criticised as lacking democratic legitimacy.
Communist candidate Nikolay Kharitonov came second with just under 4 percent, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, the results showed.
However, reports suggest the other three candidates are a creation of the Kremlin and no credible opposition were allowed to stand.
In a post-election news conference, Putin said Russia’s democracy was more transparent than many in the West. He also said the outcome was a vindication of his decision to defy the West and invade Ukraine.
“It’s transparent and absolutely objective,” he suggested, “not like in the US with mail-in voting… you can buy a vote for $10” Putin said in an address from his campaign headquarters early on Monday morning.
“No matter who or how much they want to intimidate us, no matter who or how much they want to suppress us, our will, our consciousness – no one has ever succeeded in anything like this in history,” Putin added.
Nationwide turnout was 74.22 percent when polls closed, election officials said, surpassing 2018 levels of 67.5 percent.
Supporters of dead Putin critic Alexei Navalny did stage symbolic protests during elections.
The outcome makes Putin Russia’s longest-serving leader in more than 200 years.