
Britain slammed Vladimir Putin’s “stolen” election victory and vowed unstinting support for Ukraine after the Russian dictator put himself on course to overtake Stalin’s time in power.
The Kremlin declared that Putin had emerged from three days of tightly choreographed voting with 87 per cent of the ballot. Any realistic candidates standing in his way to a fifth term were jailed, denied the chance to run or — as in the case of Alexei Navalny — died in mysterious circumstances.