As of Monday morning, Russia's Central Election Commission had counted 95.04 percent of the votes cast in Sunday's election. So far, President Vladimir Putin has obtained 87.32 percent of the votes, which allows his re-election to hold office during the period 2024-2030.
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"It is a truly exceptional result for President Putin," said Russian Presidency spokesman Dmitri Peskov, who rejected doubts sown by the United States and its allies about the legitimacy of the elections and their results.
"We didn't expect anything else from them," he said, referring to statements by White House spokesman John Kirby, who said the Russian elections were "neither free nor fair."
Central Electoral Commission President Ela Pamfilova indicated that 87.1 million citizens out of 112.3 million authorized voters participated in the presidential elections.
"An unprecedented record was established," she said, recalling that turnout exceeded 77 percent of the electoral roll, the highest figure in the Russian electoral history since 1991.
During a press conference following the completion of the elections, Putin referred to international political issues and highlighted the good prospects in relations between Russia and China.
"They are very stable, they complement each other. The most important thing is the coincidence of state interests. This creates a very good tone for solving common problems in the field of international relations," he said, expressing confidence that bilateral collaboration will continue to strengthen in the coming years.
"China is developing by leaps and bounds, at a fast pace, very confidently, and what is very important is that the structure of China's economy is changing towards innovation, towards making the economy more innovative. And we are trying to do the same within the country. We face exactly the same tasks in Russia," he added.