Exit polls: Putin wins nearly 88 percent of vote in Russian elections | DW News

Polls have closed in Russia after the third and final day of a tightly-controlled presidential election. And the first few votes have already been counted.

Early results show that Vladimir Putin has won nearly 88% of the votes. That is according to Russia's election commission.

Putin has led Russia since 1999 and when his win is confirmed, it will extend his presidency by an additional six years.

But votes from three quarters of the polling stations have not been counted yet.

DW's Riga bureau and reporter Sergei Satanovskii is following developments for us. DW relocated to Riga after being forced to shut down operations in Russia.

#Russia #Elections #Putin

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[Sonofspam]

Shocking! I thought for sure one of his dead, in prison, or exiled opponents would win.

[IK_MK]

Putin: _"I want it to look realistic, so put 80% instead of that 150% i originally intended"_

[jayc]

There's not enough sarcasm in the world to respond to this.

[emikomina]

How kind of Putin to only have 88%, I guess 90% would be too unbelievable. 😂😂😂😂😂

[citizenVader]

What an unbelievable experience. We have never seen or expected such a result

[dixonlenin]

A thousand rally doesn't represent a 120 million of population 😂😂😂

[chrislochner]

And, very quickly, the population dropped by 12%.

[c.m.]

Only 88%? Damn, he has fallen bellow the expected 125%. He really seems in trouble!

[johnround]

I wonder how the West will bray at these results. Please don`t forget that Russia is a sovereign country, not a serf of the West.

[petter]

Wow, I’m shocked.
Who would have thought a dictator would win an election 😂

[samexoldx]

Stop calling it an "election"

[uzofnet]

Спасибо обьеденённому западу, за обьединение всех людей России ! Русские всегда обьеденяются перед врагами . Голосовали за Путина даже те, кто в прошлом этого не делал, благодаря западной политике .)

[VsevolodSidorenko]

Fun fact: romanian dictator Chaushescu claimed he had 94% but soon was overthrown and executed. Ukrainian dictator yanukovich claimed he had more than 80 too but soon had to run away from Ukraine

[Smartest_Animals]

I thought you guys say Putin is a dictator and don’t allow people to oppose

[urbansahlin]

So weird. How can anyone think Russia is a democracy.

[pRaX]

What a close race that was. But he turned it around last minute.

[mieux]

Need to do research he was president then became prime minister and then ran as president again and got it.

[smithb]

Wow! What a nail biting photo finish! I've been on the edge of my seat for three days now.

[INeedJesussure]

16 million votes... in a country with 112 million people eligible to vote... that is actually stunnigly low

[Crashed]

Why did Putin chose to win by 88% and not 120% ?
Have to make it look sort of real ?