Vladimir Putin was Monday set for another six years in power after his landslide victory in Russia’s presidential election.
Putin, who ran against seven other candidates, recorded his best election performance with 76.67 percent of the vote, Russian media reported, putting the turnout at more than 67 percent.
“Listen to me. It seems to me that what you are saying is a bit funny,” he told reporters Sunday night when asked if he saw himself running for president again in 2030.
“What, am I going to sit here until I am 100 years old? No.”
“I see in this (result) the confidence and hope of our people,” Putin said in an address to a crowd of supporters on a square next to the Kremlin after exit polls put him on track for a resounding victory.
Selfie competitions, giveaways, food festivals and children’s entertainers were laid on at polling stations in a festive atmosphere around the election.
According to central election commission data with 99.8 percent of ballots counted, Putin took 76.67 percent of the vote, well ahead of his nearest competitor Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin, who was on 11.79 percent.
Ultra-nationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky took around 5.66 percent, former reality TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak was on 1.67 percent, while veteran liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky received just over 1 percent of the vote.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has just been handed a second term himself last week, congratulated Putin.
“China is willing to work with Russia to keep promoting China-Russia relations to a higher level, provide driving force for respective national development in both countries, and promote regional and global peace and tranquility,” Xi said.
In Latin America, the presidents of the leftist regimes in Venezuela and Bolivia both congratulated Putin on his overwhelming victory.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro commended “the glorious Russian people for its display of civic duty” while Bolivia’s Evo Morales said Putin’s victory “guarantees geopolitical equilibrium and world peace before the onslaught of imperialism”.
After his victory, Putin dismissed claims Russia was behind the poisoning of a former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain as “drivel, rubbish, nonsense” but said Moscow was ready to cooperate with London in the probe.
The president has said he will use his fourth term to address a litany of domestic problems including widespread poverty and poor healthcare.
Source: Agencies
