Turnout Seen High as Putin Seeks Mandate Amid Standoff With West

Russians vote in election that may extend Putin’s rule to 2024
Opposition allege violations as Kremlin seeks to boost turnout

Open Russia Founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky talks about Russia’s presidential election and President Putin.(Source: Bloomberg)

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By Henry Meyer, Evgenia Pismennaya, and Stepan Kravchenko

March 17, 2018 at 8:02 PM UTC

Updated on

March 18, 2018 at 4:31 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Officials reported a high turnout among voters in Russian presidential elections that are expected to hand Vladimir Putin a mandate to rule until 2024 amid an escalating standoff with the West. Opposition activists complained of ballot fraud.

The Central Election Commission said turnout across Russia was 59.6 percent at 7 p.m. in Moscow. The Tass news service reported that turnout was running ahead of 2012 levels, including by as much as six percentage points in Moscow.