Russia's president Vladimir Putin was poised to be re-elected Sunday night, the widely anticipated outcome, extending his rule into a third decade and raising questions about what another six years under his helm will bring.
With ballots counted from 60 percent of the vast country's precincts, Putin had won more than 75 percent of the vote. Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin currently has 12.5 percent and LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky earned 6 percent. TV-personality-turned-politician Ksenia Sobchak, whose father was Putin's political mentor, came in with 1.4 percent of the vote.
Putin's share of the votes is much higher than the 63.6 percent he garnered in 2012.
There was wide speculation about how many people would turn out to vote and hand Putin a convincing mandate for a fourth term in office.
A number of fraud allegations were reported by election observers. CEC said it opened 13 criminal cases related to today's election.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was not registered as a candidate over what he calls a fabricated criminal case against him, encouraged his supporters to boycott the vote, saying high voter turnout would only help legitimize an election with no real competition.
Sunday afternoon, Navalny told reporters his election observers recorded a 12-18 percent discrepancy in voter turnout as compared to the official numbers released by CEC.
Despite the allegations of fraud, there were no protests or marches staged as election results were rolling in. Instead, a big celebration marking the fourth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea took place in Manezhnaya Square in central Moscow.
Putin made an appearance at the event before final election results were announced, thanking his supporters. "We are destined for success," Putin yelled to the crowd as people chanted his name.
Speaking to reporters later that night, Putin said he was grateful for people's trust and called for unity in the face of political differences.
