Vladimir Putin was headed for another six-year term as Russian president on Sunday, March 17, exit polls showed, paving the way for him to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than 200 years. Victory for the 71-year-old in the three-day vote was never in doubt, with all his major opponents dead, in prison or exiled, and authorities waging an unrelenting crackdown on those who publicly oppose the Kremlin or its military offensive on Ukraine. The government-run VTsIOM pollster projected Putin had won with 87% of the vote after polls closed in Russia's western-most region of Kaliningrad.
The Kremlin cast the election as an opportunity for Russians to throw their weight behind the full-scale military operation in Ukraine, where voting is also being staged in Russian-controlled territories. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky called Putin a power-hungry "dictator" after the Russian president looked set to secure another six-year term. "It is clear to everyone in the world that this figure (of 88%) – as has happened so often in history – is simply sick from power and is doing everything he can to rule forever. There is no evil he will not commit to prolong his personal power," Zelensky said in a message on social media.
A top ally of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dismissed the huge vote numbers: "The percentages drawn for Putin have, of course, not the slightest relation to reality," Leonid Volkov, Navalny's former chief of staff, said in a post on Telegram.
"Russia's presidential election is not legal, free and fair," said a Polish foreign ministry statement, adding that voting had taken place "amid harsh repressions" and in occupied parts of Ukraine in breach of international law.
Former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Putin on his victory: "I congratulate Vladimir Putin on his splendid victory in the election," Medvedev said on Telegram, while Russian state-run television praised "colossal support to the president" and the "unbelievable consolidation" of the country behind its leader.