Exit polls indicated Sunday that Vladimir Putin has won another six-year term as Russian president, clearing the path for the tough former spy to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than 200 years.
The 71-year-old’s victory was never in doubt, with all of his major opponents killed, imprisoned, or exiled, and authorities cracking down on those who publicly criticise the Kremlin or its military incursion in Ukraine.
After voting closed in Russia’s westernmost territory of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, the government-run VTsIOM pollster predicted Putin would easily win with 87 percent of the vote.
The three-day election was highlighted by an increase in lethal Ukrainian bombardments, pro-Kyiv sabotage organisations infiltrating Russian territory, and damage at polling places.
The Kremlin had framed the poll as an opportunity for Russians to lend their weight behind a full-scale military action in Ukraine, where voting is also taking place in Russian-controlled territory.
Kyiv and its allies denounced the vote as a fraud, and President Volodymyr Zelensky referred to Putin as a “dictator” who was “drunk from power”.
“There is no evil he will not commit to maintain his personal power,” Zelensky wrote in a social media post.