According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), Vladimir Putin has been reelected as president with a record share of votes, winning his fifth term in office by a landslide. President Putin’s candidacy was supported by over 75 million voters.
Russia held its first three-day presidential election over the period March 15-17. Remote electronic voting, also a first, was available to voters in 29, or about one-third, of the country’s regions. According to the Central Election Commission, after 99.43 percent of vote tally reports by local election commissions had been processed, incumbent head of state Vladimir Putin held a resounding lead over his three rivals with 87.32 percent of the vote.
Vladimir Putin’s opponents in the 2024 race, Communist Party candidate Nikolay Kharitonov, Vladislav Davankov of the New People party, and Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democrats secured 4.31 percent, 3.85 percent and 3.20 percent respectively.
It may be mentioned here that Vladimir Putin first elected president in 2000 and served two consecutive four-year terms until 2008. He subsequently became prime minister under Dmitry Medvedev, who was Russia’s president from 2008–2012. During Medvedev’s time in office, he extended the presidential term to six years. Putin replaced Medvedev in office, becoming the head of state once again in 2012 and getting re-elected in 2018. As part of major constitutional reform in 2020, Russia amended its election regulations, “nullifying” Putin’s previous terms and enabling him to run for office again this year.
In his address to voters ahead of the vote, President Putin encouraged Russians to take part in the election, noting that “each vote is valuable and significant” and that the outcome of the election will “shape the country’s development for years to come”. He also acknowledged that Russia is going through a “difficult period”, facing problems “in almost all areas” due to Western sanctions imposed over the Ukraine conflict. He urged Russians to “continue to be united and self-confident” in order to overcome these challenges.
According to media reports, this year’s election has been marked by a record-high voter turnout. According to CEC data, it topped 74 percent, exceeding the figure for the 2018 elections (67.47 percent). The highest turnout, of over 90 percent, was recorded in the Chechen Republic, the Kemerovo region, and in the Republic of Tyva. Presidential elections were also organized for the first time in Russia’s new regions – the Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) People’s Republics, as well as in Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions.
Following the election, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in a statement said, the outcome of Russia’s presidential election sends a clear message to the West that it cannot rock the boat from the inside.
“This was a serious signal to the West, which was banking on shaking the situation from inside Russia. If they can’t do it on the frontline, then try it from the inside. This failed too”, the BelTA news agency quoted him as saying.
Lukashenko stressed that no one can force anything on the peoples of Belarus and Russia. He also noted that it would be expedient to “analyze how the election [in Russia] was held” ahead of the presidential election in Belarus in 2025.
He lauded how well-organized the electoral process in Russia was. “Naturally, the president [Vladimir Putin] had to work a lot, you saw this.
Tirelessly. He traveled across all of Russia, visited various places, and responded to vital questions from the Russian people”, Lukashenko said.
“The planning and process of the electoral process was perfect. There is a lot to learn. Everybody was mobilized and consolidated <…>. People were patriotic and the result was perfects. This is a lesson for us”.
In a statement Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said, Moscow repudiates the United States’ assessment of Russia’s presidential election and has no intention of heeding it.
Earlier, a US National Security Council (NSC) official told journalists that Washington had slammed Russia’s presidential election as “neither free nor fair”.
“We categorically reject this assessment. Speaking to journalists, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin noted that such assessments were quite expected and predictable”, Peskov said, adding that the United States “is deeply involved” in the conflict in Ukraine.
“As a matter of fact, this country is fighting against us. Obviously, other assessments could hardly be expected, although, let me say it again: We categorically disagree with them and this is not an opinion we are willing to heed, nor is it of any importance to us these days”, he stressed.
It may be mentioned here that in this election, the head of state not only received a record result for a Russian president, but he won it with a record turnout. According to the CEC, 74.22 percent of Russia’s 112.3 million eligible voters had gone to the polls by 6 pm (polls close at 8 pm) on the final day of voting, not counting online voting.
“A three-day voting period allows everyone who wishes to vote to do so on a convenient day”, Daria Kislitsyna of the Expert Institute for Social Research told Vedomosti.
Three-day voting, unlike remote electronic voting, does not affect turnout in any way, political scientist Alexander Kynev told Vedomosti. Online voting provides a “very large influx” of voters, political scientist Evgeny Minchenko agrees.
Russians who voted showed a readiness to respond to external challenges to their country and society, Sergey Perminov, deputy secretary of the General Council of the United Russia party, said. He believes that online voting is in “demand”. “The very high activity of those voters who chose this convenient, quick method of expressing their will is obvious”, he added.
Sputnik’s interlocutors, commenting on the presidential election outcome said, Vladimir Putin’s victory will ensure Russia’s economic rise and military-technical development amid the ongoing global geopolitical shift.
It said, Russian President Vladimir Putin was successful in his re-election bid on March 17, securing a new six-year term, having gained over 80 percent of votes. Over the past several months Putin has outlined his strategy in a series of public speeches and interviews in which he reflected on what has already been done in terms of Russia’s socio-economic development and what should be accomplished in the coming years.
Alexey Leonkov, military analyst and editor of Arsenal Otechestva (Arsenal of the Fatherland), told Sputnik, “The victory of President Putin is a determining factor given that under him [Russia] has built a [technological] chain that starts with research and development work and ends with the delivery of modern weapons and military equipment to the Russian Armed Forces”.
“This work will continue, because, as the special military operation has demonstrated, [Russia’s] enemy is looking for ways to beat its modern weapons systems. That is, they are looking for a universal means or, as they say, a miracle technology that will provide them, in their opinion, with a guaranteed victory in any military operation”, Leonkov continued.
