Vladimir Putin's landslide victory

Russia’s incumbent head of state Vladimir Putin has garnered 76.67% of the vote in the March 18 election with 99,75% of the ballots counted, the Russian Central Election Commission said, noting that it was a record support of the Russians at the presidential election.

In 2004, Vladimir Putin received 49.3 million votes, and yesterday 5 million people more supported him - 54.4 million voters. In addition, more than 50% of all citizens eligible to vote, voted for Putin.

Director of the Lenin State Farm Pavel Grudinin, nominated by the Communist Party of Russia, is second with 11.79% of the vote, while leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky is third with 5.66%. Over 8.54 mln supported Grudinin and around 4.1 mln voted in Zhirinovsky’s favor.

TV personality and socialite Ksenia Sobchak, nominated by the Civil Initiative party, is fourth with 1.67% (over 1.19 mln votes).

Next are head of the Yabloko Party’s federal political committee Grigory Yavlinsky (1.04%), chairman of the Party of Growth and Russian Presidential Envoy for Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov (0.75%), Maxim Suraikin, nominated by the Communists of Russia party (0.68%) and head of the Russian People’s Union party Sergei Baburin (0.65%).

President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov , President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and Cuban President Raul Castro congratulated Vladimir Putin on the election.