Vladimir Putin wins the Russian Presidential Election
5th March 2012Unsurprisingly outgoing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (United Russia ER) was elected in the first round of the Russian presidential election with 63.60% of the vote. Communist Guenady Zyuganov came second with 17.18%. He was followed by populist Vladimir Jirinovski, who won 7.9% of the vote, and billionaire Mikhail Prokorov (Just Cause) who won 6.23% of the vote. Former leader of Fair Russia (SR) Serguei Mironov won 3.85% of the vote. Vladimir Putin's victory was quickly challenged. Indeed the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) believes that the election was marred by infringements: ballot stuffing and fraud when the votes were counted. The OSCE is not the only one to question the elections since thousands of opponents are also denouncing the infringements. These demonstrations also gave rise to a number of arrests by the Russian police force.
ReadOther link