Moscow, March 18 (HBTV): Russian President Vladimir Putin, who extended his one-man rule by six years after clinching a predictable landslide win in the presidential elections without any serious competition, thanked the people who had come out to vote, saying the result of the elections will allow the Russian society to consolidate and become stronger. He also slammed Russia's top rival, the United States, as undemocratic and warned Western countries of a "World War III' if their troops entered Ukraine.

Putin won 87.8 per cent of the vote, the highest-ever result in Russia's post-Soviet history, according to an exit poll by pollster the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM). The outcome means that the 71-year-old President is set for a new six-year term that will see him overtake former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and become Russia's longest-serving leader for over 200 years if he completes it. Most of Putin's opponents are either imprisoned, dead, or have fled abroad.

Nationwide turnout was 74.22 per cent when the polls closed, surpassing 2018 levels of 67.5 per cent, according to election officials. Thousands of Putin opponents protested at noon at polling stations inside Russia and abroad, and 74 people were arrested on Sunday in the country, according to OVD-Info.

Speaking on the election results on Monday morning, Putin said, "It (high turnout rate in election and high percentage of people who voted for Putin) has to do with the dramatic events that the country is going through, it has to do with the current situation, with the fact that we have to literally fight with weapons the interests of our citizens, our people, and create a future for the comprehensive, sovereign and secure development of the Russian Federation and our Fatherland."

The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other nations have said the vote was neither free nor fair due to the imprisonment of political opponents and censorship. Putin had spent years ruthlessly suppressing the Russian opposition and limiting resources for independent media. Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov finished second with just under 4 per cent, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third, and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, partial results suggested.