Vladimir Putin has regained his position as president of Russia after Sunday’s election. According to the Central Election Committee, Putin got 63.82 per cent votes confirming him as winner without the need for a second round of voting. The second highest result was achieved by communist leader Gennady Zyuganov with 17.8 per cent of the votes. The other candidates, oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, LDPR party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky and former Duma speaker Sergey Mironov, all had less than 8 per cent of votes.<\/p>\n
Zuganov described the election results as \u201cillegitimate and unfair\u201d, while Mironov, Zhirinovsky and Prokhorov accepted their defeat and recognised Putin\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n
Vladimir Putin made a speech in front of his supporters in Moscow\u2019s Manezh Square saying his victory was \u201cclean\u201d and the elections were \u201ca test\u201d that showed \u201cRussian people didn\u2019t let anyone impose their will\u201d to destabilise the country. This statement is in line with Putin\u2019s previous allegations against the opposition<\/a>. President Dmitry Medvedev said they \u201cwon\u2019t give this victory away to anyone\u201d.<\/p>\n Opposition and journalists reported numerous fraud allegations, along with the suggestion that Putin\u2019s supporters were paid to appear at central squares on 4 March for money and were bussed in.<\/p>\n Watchdogs from the League of Voters reported over 3,000 election law violations. The same number was reported by GOLOS association, another independent monitor.<\/p>\n