President Vladimir Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia's election on Sunday. With half of the ballots counted, preliminary results reported on Sunday by Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) show Putin leading with 87.3% of the vote.
Nationwide turnout was 74.22% at 1800 GMT when polls closed, election officials said, surpassing 2018 levels of 67.5%, reported Reuters. Three other candidates from parties loyal to the Kremlin had offered no serious competition in the tightly controlled election. Communist Nikolai Kharitonov got 4.1% support, Vladislav Davankov from the New People, a party created in 2020, was on 4% and Leonid Slutsky, leader of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, trailed with 3.1%, the election commission data showed.
