Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is denying claims by his opponents that he won the presidential election by fraud, the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting. Putin told thousands of supporters last night that he won in “an open and honest fight.” He added that “we showed that our people can easily distinguish between a desire for novelty and renewal from political provocations which have only one goal: to destroy Russian statehood.”
Putin has held power for the last 12 years, the first eight as president and the last four as prime minister to current President Dmitry Medvedev. He won another six years with 63.7 percent of the vote. Approximately 65 percent of Russia’s 110 million eligible voters cast ballots.
Masha Lipman, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Putin may have won a third term as president, “but the challenges he’s been facing in the past few months won’t go away.” His support fell last year, which resulted in rallies in the streets of Moscow and other major cities. Protesters alleged fraud in the ruling United Russia party’s victory in the December 4 elections.
Russian officials have said Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov trailed Putin with 17.2 percent of the votes. Mikhail Prokhorov received 7.9 percent, Vladimir Zhirinovsky registered 6.2 percent and Sergei Mironov had 3.9 percent of the votes.
Written by: Karen Benardello
