Skip to content
Subscriber Only

Putin Claims Mandate in Record Win Amid Conflict With West

  • Putin gets 77% in presidential election with high turnout
  • Tensions with West spurred Russians to vote, poll chief says
Video player cover image

Open Russia Founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky talks about Russia’s presidential vote and Vladimir Putin.

(Source: Bloomberg)
Updated on

Russian President Vladimir Putin won a landslide victory in a tightly controlled election and claimed a renewed mandate for his escalating confrontation with the West.

With almost all ballots counted, the Kremlin’s longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin gained a record 77 percent support, handing him a new six-year term. Putin, 65, barely campaigned before Sunday’s vote, which was marred by opposition allegations of fraud, and faced no real competition in a contest that even some of his seven rival candidates described as a farce.