Putin 'elected Russian president'

[Lewis]

Vladimir Putin has declared victory in Russia's presidential elections, returning for a third term after spending the last four years as the country's PM.

Exit polls and preliminary results gave him about 60% of the vote.

Mr Putin told supporters at a rally in central Moscow they had won in an open and honest battle.

But opposition groups have reported widespread fraud, with many people said to have voted more than once.

They have called for mass protests in central Moscow on Monday.

Meanwhile tens of thousands of supporters of Mr Putin gathered with Russian flags and banners outside the Kremlin for a concert to celebrate his victory.

Making a brief appearance with current President Dmitry Medvedev, Mr Putin thanked his supporters from "every corner" of the country.

"I promised you we would win, and we won," he said, his eyes watering. "Glory to Russia!"

"We have won in an open and honest battle.

"We proved that no-one can force anything on us."

Slogans on the banner included "Putin - our president" and "We believe in Putin", but there were indications that some participants had been ordered to attend.

There is tight security in the city, with 6,000 extra police brought in from outside.

High turnout
The electoral commission showed preliminary results, with returns from more than half the polling districts, showing Mr Putin gaining over 64%, enough to give him a first-round victory over nearest rival Gennady Zyuganov, with about 17%.

The other three candidates were in single digits.

In a news conference after the polls closed, Mr Zyuganov described the elections as "unfair and unworthy".

But he said that with increasing public anger, Mr Putin "would not be able to rule like he used to".

"These elections cannot be considered legitimate in any way," said Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the leaders of the street protest movement, which was not represented in the election.

Meanwhile Mr Putin's campaign chief Stanislav Govorukhin described the poll as "the cleanest in Russian history".

The turnout was 58.3% by 18:00 Moscow time (14:00 GMT), considerably higher than in 2008 elections. Electoral officials forecast a final turnout of 62.3%.

The election was held against a backdrop of popular discontent, sparked by allegations of widespread fraud during December's parliamentary elections in favour of Mr Putin's United Russia party.

Observer organisations said there had been thousands of violations including so-called carousel voting, with busloads of voters being driven around to different polling stations.

The alleged fraud came despite the presence of thousands of independent observers and web cameras at polling stations.

Opposition blogger and anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny told the BBC: "Grandiose scale of falsifications, especially in Moscow... mass use of carousel voting."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17252190

[Earl]

Perhaps I should keep my mouth shut -- since, admittedly, for the last ten years or so, I haven't been closely following news reports concerning political developments in Russia. I understand that Putin is no friend of the West; but at least Zyuganov, the Communist candidate, didn't win. To hear a Communist speak of an election as being "unfair and unworthy" truly is astounding -- this declaration coming from a leading representative of a political movement that led to mass murder on a scale that boggles the mind. In the 20th Century, the Communist movement (which produced some of the worst tyrants in history) caused the slaughter of 100 million people! Of course, I know that Putin once served in the Soviet KGB.

Sadly, the truth is that democratic principles don't become widely accepted overnight, especially in a country that has experienced absolute rule for centuries. The best opportunity for the Russian people to institute representative democracy in their country was not in 1991 when the Communist Party fell from power; but was in March of 1917, when the Czarist regime collapsed during the ravages of World War I, which was called "the Great War." A prominent Russian liberal reformer named Alexander Kerensky soon came to the forefront in those turbulent times. He was a morally principled man whose commitment to democracy was deep and unswerving. Of course, we all know the end of that story. His government was overthrown in November of that same year by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, who carried out the first Red Terror. Some people mistakenly believe Nicholas II was overthrown by the Bolsheviks, who soon officially adopted the designation "Communists." They had absolutely nothing to do with the downfall of the Czar. For example, Lenin was exiled in Switzerland at the time; Trotsky was living in New York City; and Stalin had been sent to Siberia. What the Soviet Communists did was to strangle democracy while it was still in its crib, so to speak. Much to the world's regret, an extremely rare opportunity in a great country's history was wasted in an enormous tragedy!