Putin Wins Russian Presidential Poll, Secures Another Six-Year Term

President Putin to hold office until 2030 after delivering a landslide victory

Preliminary results showed the Russian president on track to be re-elected with a record 87 per cent of the vote and In second place was the Communist party candidate, Nikolai Kharitonov, according to the Russian electoral commission.

Putin says his election results are a sign of trust from Russians and that the country will not be intimidated.

Putin also thanked volunteers and spoke to reporters at his campaign headquarters near the Kremlin.

“All the plans we have created to develop Russia will certainly be carried out and their goals achieved,” he said. “We have come up with grandiose plans and will do everything to carry them out.”

Putin brushed off western criticism of the elections, telling his supporters it was “expected”.

He also responded for the first time to the death of Alexei Navalny, claiming he had given approval to exchange the Kremlin critic for Russian prisoners in the west shortly before his death. “Unfortunately, what happened happened” he said. “I agreed under one condition: we swap him, and he doesn’t come back. But that’s life.”

Putin Securing another Six-Year Term, By 2029 his tenure will have surpassed that of Joseph Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union for 29 years, making Putin the country’s longest-serving leader since the Russian empire.