Vladimir Putin has won the Russian presidential election with around 88 per cent of votes on Sunday.
Reuters reported that according to the first official results after the poll closed on Sunday, Putin won Russia’s presidential election with 87.97% of the votes.
The voting took place against the backdrop of one of the harshest crackdown on the opposition and freedom of speech in the country.
The president had only three candidates challenging him in the poll.
According to reports, the candidates were those who had not criticised his rule nor his invasion of Ukraine.
All prominent challengers were reportedly taken out of the way before voting commenced.
It was gathered that Arch foe, Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison last month, while other critics of the president’s rule are either in jail or in exile.
Meanwhile, independent monitoring of the election was extremely limited, with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe not invited to observe the three-day vote.
