Russian President Vladimir Putin won a landslide re-election victory on Sunday, garnering 76.7 percent of the vote with more than 99 percent of precincts reporting.

Addressing his supporters at a victory rally in Moscow, Putin said the election result was a recognition of what had been achieved in the past few years, despite difficult conditions.

He said Russia had a great future ahead of it, so long as its people stayed united.

Read more: Putin's certain victory: What you need to know about the Russian presidential election

Turnout lower than previous elections

Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin is set to secure the second place followed by ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who is on track to a third place finish.

Turnout was reportedly 67 percent, which would be higher than at Putin's last electoral victory in 2012.

Analysts believed Putin had been aiming for a high voter turnout to secure a clear mandate for his fourth term in office.

Vladimir Putin: The road to power KGB cadet Born in St.Petersburg in 1952, Putin signed up with the Soviet intelligence agency the KGB right out of law school in 1975. His first assignment was to monitor foreign nationals and consulate employees in his home city, then called Leningrad. He was then assigned to Dresden, East Germany. He reportedly burned hundreds of KGB files after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Vladimir Putin: The road to power Political mentor Putin was one of the deputies to St Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak from 1991 to 1996. Sobchak met Putin at Leningrad State University and the two men were close until Sobchak's death in 2000. Despite accusations of corruption, Sobchak was never charged.

Vladimir Putin: The road to power Meteoric rise Putin quickly leapt from St.Petersburg to Moscow. In 1997, President Boris Yeltsin gave Putin a mid-level position on his staff — a position Putin would use to cultivate important political friendships that would serve him in the decades to come.

Vladimir Putin: The road to power Death of a friend Putin was deeply affected by Anatoly Sobchak's death in 2000. After the apprentice outstripped his teacher politically, Sobchak became a vocal early proponent of Putin's bid for the presidency. A year earlier, Putin used his political connections to have fraud allegations against Sobchak dropped, the beginning of a pattern for friends of the former spy.

Vladimir Putin: The road to power Temporary president In June 2000, Boris Yeltsin stepped down, leaving his prime minister to become interim leader. As he was running for his successful presidential campaign, corruption allegations from his time on the city government in St.Petersburg resurfaced. Marina Salye, the lawmaker who brought up the claims, was silenced and forced to leave the city.

Vladimir Putin: The road to power Tandemocracy When Putin was constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term in 2008, his Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ran in his stead. When Medvedev was elected, he appointed Putin as premier. This led to criticism of a "tandemocracy," in Moscow, with many people believing that Medvedev was Putin's puppet.

Vladimir Putin: The road to power Victory In March 2018, Vladimir Putin was elected to his fourth term as president. Because the presidential term has been extended, this means Putin will be in power for the next six years. However, the election was marred by a lack of opposition to the incumbent, as well as allegations of vote tampering and ballot-stuffing.

Vladimir Putin: The road to power Putin pushes for constitutional reform Less than two years after his latest election victory, Putin unexpectedly announced sweeping constitutional changes that prompted his most loyal ally, Dmitry Medvedev, to resign. He was replaced by little-known Mikhail Mishustin (R). Soon after that, Putin hinted he was willing to run again when his current term expires in 2024. Author: Elizabeth Schumacher



'Alarming' irregularities

Golos, Russia's most independent election monitoring group, said it received dozens of complaints, reporting more than 2,500 electoral irregularities and violations across the country. The issues included several ballot boxes hidden from view of observation cameras and last-minute changes to voter registration lists.

Read more: Vladimir Putin is counting on female turnout

The group said Saturday it had registered an "alarming" rise in complaints about employers forcing or pressuring their workers to vote as part of an apparent effort by authorities to boost the turnout and hand Putin a clear mandate.

Russia's Central Election Commission said on Sunday it was responding to 670 claims of violations, including ballot stuffing.

France dismisses Crimea results

France became the first Western country to openly criticize the vote, saying it would not recognize the results in Crimea due to Russia's illegal occupation of the peninsula.

"Challenging borders by force is contrary to international law, including commitments made by the Russian Federation," said the French foreign ministry, adding that it was "concerned by the militarization" in the region as well as human rights abuses.

The polls are taking place four years to the day since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

DW's Russia correspondent, Miodrag Soric, was turned away from a polling station in Kazan as he tried to report on the election.

However, he was allowed to film at another voting center, just five minutes away.

Getting people to the polls

Critics alleged that officials had compelled people to come to polling booths to ensure that the one-sided contest did not prompt people to stay at home.

On Russia's Pacific coast, in the Khabarovsk region, local officials brought eggs, tinned peas, and frozen pike to be sold at a discount of between 10 and 30 percent to voters at polling stations.

"By doing this we hope to attract voters to the polling stations and we think we can increase turnout," said Nikolai Kretsu, chairman of the consumer market committee in the regional administration. "The second objective is to strengthen allegiance towards the authorities."

Read more: Khodorkovsky: Nobody knows where Putin will drag Russia

Putin, who campaigned under the slogan "a strong president, a strong Russia," on Friday appealed to Russians to "use their right to choose the future for the great Russia that we all love."

At the same time, he warned that failing to cast a ballot would mean that "this decisive choice will be made without your opinion taken into account."

In the run-up to the polls, Putin pledged to raise wages, inject more funding into healthcare and education and to modernize dilapidated infrastructure.

Russia's last presidential elections in 2012 saw protests across the country against Putin's return as head of state. The vote was marred by allegations of fraud. The country's opposition movement also made a strong showing.

Vladimir Putin has campaigned as the only candidate "strong" enough to protect Russia from perceived threats

Navalny boycotts vote

Putin's most vocal critic, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was barred from taking part in the race because of a criminal conviction that many believe to be politically motivated.

Navalny said he had boycotted the presidential election and urged other Russians to do the same.

"On election day, one should usually want to say 'I voted,' but in fact I'm here to say that I didn't go to vote," he said in a video posted on YouTube.

Read more: Where is the Russian economy headed?

amp,ap,ls,nm/se (AP, AFP, Reuters)

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