Putin Declared Winner In Russian Presidential Vote
Updated
Putin Declared Winner In Russian Presidential Vote
Vladimir Putin (left) greets supporters as President Dmitry Medvedev stands nearby and applauds during a rally in Manezh Square near the Kremlin on March 4, at which Putin declared victory.
Russia's Central Election Commission has officially declared Vladimir Putin the winner of the country's presidential election on March 4.
Visibly moved to tears, Putin told a rally of supporters in Moscow shortly after polls closed that he achieved a "clean victory" as he and President Dmitry Medvedev appeared before an estimated 100,000 supporters in Moscow's Manezh Square.
A career KGB agent and two-term presidency from late 1999 to 2008, Putin said he was not ashamed to show that he was moved.
"Thank you everybody who said 'Yes' to a great Russia. I once asked you if we will win. We have won!" Putin said. "We have won in honest and fair battle. But those were not only the elections of Russia's president. That was a very important test for all of us, for all our people."
Central Election Commission officials said that with more than 99 percent of the ballots counted, Putin received 63.75 percent of the votes.
Among the other candidates – Gennady Zyuganov received 17.19 percent, Mikhail Prokhorov 7.82, Vladimir Zhirinovsky 6.23 and Sergei Mironov 3.85 percent.
In Moscow results showed Putin receiving 47.22 percent, followed by Prokhorov with 20.21 and Zyuganov with 19.12 percent.
Speaking alongside Putin at the March 4 rally in Moscow, Medvedev told demonstrators that Putin's victory was "needed by all of us, needed by our country, needed by every one of us."
"We will not hand that victory over to anyone," he added.
'Considerable Doubts'
Communist leader Zyuganov told journalists that the election was "crooked" and "absolutely unfair," adding that they cannot be considered legitimate.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said there are "considerable doubts" about the whether the announced results "reflect the real mood of society."
Russian Presidential Election
1/18Prisoners vote in Butyrka prison, Moscow.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
2/18A woman looks at a list of presidential candidates at a polling station in Grozny, Chechnya
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
3/18Soldiers hold their ID at a polling station in Moscow
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
4/18Russian soldiers stand in a queue at a polling station in Moscow.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
5/18An Orthodox monk casts his ballot during the presidential elections at the Nilova Pustyn monastery near the town of Ostashkov
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
6/18A feminist activist from the FEMEN group is arrested while trying to steal the ballot box used by Prime Minister Vladmir Putin as part of an antigovernment protest.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
7/18Police and Interior Ministry troops in downtown Moscow on election day.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
8/18Police officers cast their votes in Moscow.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
9/18Voters fill out ballot papers in booths at a polling station in a student hostel in the southern city of Stavropol.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
10/18A man casts his vote in a polling station in the central Russian town of Divnogorsk.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
11/18Sailors queue to vote at a polling station in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
12/18Winter-swimming enthusiasts cast their ballots in a polling station in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
13/18Members of a local electoral commission bring a mobile ballot to elderly people in their house in the village of Boreshino, some 40 km outside the western Russian city of Smolensk.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
14/18Wearing their traditional Russian costumes, members of a folk group receive ballots at a polling station in the village of Koshchino, outside Smolensk.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
15/18Transparency International's Elena Panfilova (left) observes at a Moscow polling station.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
16/18Putin supporters gathered on Moscow's Manezh Square after polls closed on March 4.
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
17/18People stand near screens showing preliminary results at the campaign headquarters of Vladimir Putin in Moscow on March 4. (REUTERS/Grigory Dukor)
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
18/18Vladimir Putin (left) greets supporters as President Dmitry Medvedev applauds at the Manezh Square rally near the Kremlin on March 4. (REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov)
On March 4, Russian voters cast ballots for a new president across the sprawling country's nine time zones at more than 90,000 polling stations.Vladimir Putin declared victory at a rally in central Moscow with election officials saying he looked to have won more than 60 percent of the vote.
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Election officials, members of the ruling United Russia party, and Putin's campaign staff have praised the conduct of the election and have slammed opposition activists for sowing seeds of doubt about the electoral process.
Putin's campaign manager, Duma Deputy Stanislav Govorukhin, slammed the "open slander on the part of the systemic and non-systemic opposition," claiming it was particularly offensive to hear complaints from the leaders of parties represented in the State Duma.
"[Violations are] a mere fraction of 1 percent," he said. "In any civilized country such an election would be considered fair and valid."
However, opposition figures and independent monitors claim there have been thousands of reports of violations, including numerous reports of ballot-box stuffing and so-called carousel voting -- when voters cast ballots repeatedly at different polling stations.
Sergei Mitrokhin, head of the liberal Yabloko party, told Interfax that because of the large number of reported election violations, "it is hard to acknowledge the election as legitimate."
'Another Wave Of Protests'
Earlier on March 4, former Prime Minister and opposition leader Mikhail Kasyanov also called the legitimacy of the election into question.
"We will not recognize the president as a legitimate president, as the president of all Russians," he said. "And we did not recognize the Duma, which doesn't represent the political views and doesn't represent the people of Russia."
Kasyanov predicted that the poll will be followed by a wave of mass protests similar to what was seen following the December 2011 parliamentary elections, which critics alleged were fraudulent.
"Tomorrow [March 5] that new stage starts and tomorrow another wave of protests [will start] against what's going on in the country and we will demand early elections."
Metals magnate Prokhorov, who is effectively tied for third with Zhirinovsky, told journalists on March 4 that he will not consider any offer of a government post and he intends to form his own political party.
"No matter what the result is, I think we have won," he said, "because after this election the most active, thinking, caring people will begin forming a new political force."
With reporting by ITAR-TASS, Interfax, and AFP
WATCH: Russian presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov claims his team registered recorded thousands of violations during the election:
