MOSCOW, 19 March (BelTA) – Vladimir Putin took a confident win in the Russian presidential elections on 18 March, preliminary official results show, BelTA informs.
According to the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Russia that, thanks to new information technology, counted almost 100% of ballots by 4 a.m., Vladimir Putin got 76.6% of the vote. Second went Pavel Grudinin (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) with 11.8% of the vote, third - Vladimir Zhirinovsky (Liberal Democratic Party) with 5.7%. Ksenia Sobchak (Civic Initiative) got 1.6% of the vote, Grigory Yavlinsky (Yabloko) – 1%, while Boris Titov (Party of Growth), Maxim Suraykin (Communists of Russia), and Sergey Baburin (Russian All-People's Union) got less than 1% each.
The new president of Russia was determined on the first ballot.
According to head of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova, the CEC will not rush with announcing the final results of the elections. “The final results will be summed up when the CEC receives all the paper vote count protocols,” she said.
Vladimir Putin's campaign team said it was an expected and impressive victory. Vladimir Zhirinovsky stated that, in his view, the conditions for the presidential candidates were not equal. Pavel Grudinin named the latest presidential elections as the dirtiest campaign in the post-Soviet space.
Addressing a rally on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow, Vladimir Putin expressed gratitude to the voters for the support. “I can see in this at least the recognition of what has been done in the recent years in very difficult conditions. I can see the trust and hope of our people that we will work same hard, same responsibly and more efficiently,” he said.
