Vladimir Putin Wins Landslide in Russian Presidential Election, Wins Highest Vote Post-Soviet Union

JAKARTA - Incumbent Vladimir Putin won a landslide victory in the Presidential Election in Russia on Sunday, setting a record for the highest number of votes and becoming the country's longest-serving leader in the last two centuries.

Putin won 87.8 percent of the vote, the highest result in post-Soviet Russia history, according to a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) pollster. The Russian Center for Public Opinion Research (VCIOM) puts Putin at 87 percent. The first official results showed that the poll was accurate.

Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov finished second with just under 4 percent of the vote, followed by newcomer Vladislav Davankov in third and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky in fourth.

The former KGB lieutenant colonel first rose to power in 1999. This result would move Putin past Josef Stalin and become Russia's longest-serving leader in more than 200 years, if he completes his term.

Putin told supporters in a victory speech in Moscow that he would prioritize solving tasks related to what he called Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine and would strengthen Russia's military.

"We have a lot of work ahead. But when we consolidate - no matter who wants to intimidate us, oppress us - no one has ever succeeded in history, they have not succeeded now, and they will never succeed in the future," said President Putin, according to Reuters March 18.

President Putin further told journalists that he considered the Russian elections to be democratic, with protests inspired by the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny against him having no impact on the election results.

When asked by NBC whether his re-election was democratic, he criticized the United States political and judicial system.

"The whole world is laughing at what happened (in the United States)," he said.

"This is just a disaster, not democracy," he continued.

"Is it democratic to use administrative resources to attack a candidate for president of the United States, in part by using the judicial system?" he asked, clearly referring to the four criminal cases against Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, the national voter turnout rate was 74.22 percent as polls closed, election officials said, surpassing the 2018 level of 67.5 percent.

There is no independent tally of how many of Russia's 114 million voters took part in the opposition demonstrations, amid heavy security involving tens of thousands of police and security personnel.