The head of the Russian Central Election Commission welcomed today the "record" victory of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections, who was re-elected with 87,29 percent of the votes based on 99,75 percent of the ballots counted.
Ela Pamfilova, the president of the election commission, said that 75.948.438 voters voted for the current president.
DON'T MISS IT
"It's a record number, almost 76 million," Pamfilova said at the press conference, adding that it was Putin's best result so far.
She said that the turnout had never been higher, and it was 77,44 percent, reports Spuntnjik.
After the three-day voting in Russia ended yesterday, in elections where the result was never in doubt since the real opposition candidates were excluded, Putin won the fifth mandate.
After facing only symbolic rivals and severely suppressing opposition voices, Putin won the support of voters to be the country's president for the next six years.
Putin has led Russia as president or prime minister since December 1999.
Putin said early this morning, after the preliminary results were announced, that they showed confidence and hope in him, while critics saw the election as another reflection of the predetermined nature of the election.
Any public criticism of Putin or his war in Ukraine has been stifled, AP reports. The independent media has been "crippled", his biggest political opponent Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison last month and other critics are in prison or in exile.
Shortly after the announcement of the partial results, the North Korean leader, the presidents of Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela, as well as the leaders of the former Soviet Central Asian countries of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, sent congratulations to Putin, and congratulations from China also arrived this morning.
The West dismissed the vote as fraudulent.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron wrote on the X network that this is not what free and fair elections look like.
Bonus video:
