Vladimir Putin wins record landslide in Russian election, early results show

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Key Points
  • Early results show Russian President Vladimir Putin won a record 88 per cent in the country’s presidential election on Sunday.
  • Thousands of people turned up at polling booths to protest against his re-election.
  • A victory would set Vladimir Putin on track to become Russia’s longest-serving leader in more than 200 years.
President Vladimir Putin won a record 88 per cent in Russia’s presidential election on Sunday, exit polls and first results showed, cementing his grip on power, though thousands of opponents staged a symbolic noon protest at polling stations.
The early result means Putin, , looks to have easily won a new six-year term that would enable him to overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader for more than 200 years.

Putin won 87.8 per cent of the vote, the highest-ever result in Russia’s post-Soviet history, an exit poll by pollster FOM showed. The Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) put Putin on 87 per cent. First official results indicated the polls were accurate.

People enter and exit polling booth curtains.

A man exits from voting cabin during Russia presidential elections in Russian Embassy in Chisinau, Moldova, 17 March 2024. Source: EPA / Dumitru Doru

‘Noon against Putin’

Thousands of people turned up at polling stations across Russia to take part in what the anti-Kremlin opposition says is a peaceful but symbolic political protest against the re-election of President Vladimir Putin.

In an action called “Noon against Putin,” Russians who oppose the veteran Kremlin leader went to their local polling station at midday to either spoil their ballot paper in protest or to vote for one of the three candidates standing against Putin, who is widely expected to win by a landslide.

Others had vowed to scrawl the name of , on their ballot paper.

Navalny’s allies broadcast videos on YouTube of lines of people queuing up at different polling stations across Russia at midday who they said were there to peacefully protest.

Woman in coat flanked by reporters as she walks outside.

Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, leaves the Russian embassy after casting her ballot in the Russian presidential elections in Berlin, Germany. Source: EPA / Hannibal Hanschke

Navalny had endorsed the “Noon against Putin” plan in a message on social media facilitated by his lawyers before he died.

Britain’s foreign minister David Cameron on Sunday dismissed early results from Russia indicating that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been comfortably re-elected.

“The polls have closed in Russia, following the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE monitoring,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The White House said Russia’s elections were “obviously not free nor fair” given how Putin has imprisoned opponents and prevented others from running against him.

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