With the polls closed in Russia, according to initial data from Moscow, Putin won the elections with around 88% of the votes .
Voter turnout reached 73.33% , data which does not include those who voted online, states Tass, citing data from the central electoral commission.
And a boom in turnout, Moscow underlines, was recorded in the occupied Ukrainian regions. In Lugansk 87.12% of eligible voters voted, in the Kherson region 83.87% .
“The West has failed in its attempt to interfere in the presidential elections in Russia,” the Russian Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by Tass. “ Moscow's Western opponents failed to undermine the Russian presidential elections abroad ,” reiterated Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov, who is chairman of the ministry's election commission.
At 12 , "Mezzogiorno against Putin" took place at the polling stations, the protest conceived by Navalny himself . Long queues in front of several polling stations in the center of Moscow, and also in those set up in Russian embassies. In Berlin, for example, the dissident's widow, who wrote Navalny's name on the ballot paper, also went to the polls at midday. In Russia dozens of people have been arrested.
(Unioneonline/L)