Vladimir Putin on Sunday stormed to victory in Russia's presidential election on Sunday, giving him another six years in power.
Mr. Putin, who has ruled Russia for almost two decades, won more than 75% of the vote according to preliminary results, but the opposition cried foul.
It reported ballot stuffing and other cases of alleged fraud as the Kremlin pushed for high turnout to give greater legitimacy to Mr. Putin's historic fourth term.
The Russian strongman ran against seven other candidates, but his most vocal critic Alexei Navalny was barred from the ballot for legal reasons and the final outcome was never in doubt.
“I see in this (result) the confidence and hope of our people,” Mr. Putin said in an address to crowds of supporters on a square next to the Kremlin after exit polls put him on track for a resounding victory.
“Our thoughts will turn to the future of our great country and the future of our children,” he said.
According to central election commission data with half of votes counted, Putin took 75 percent of the vote, well ahead of his nearest competitor Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin at 13.2 percent.
Results for all other candidates, including former reality TV host Ksenia Sobchak and ultra-nationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky were forecast to be in single figures.
'Unprecedented violations'
Mr. Navalny -- who called on his supporters to boycott the “fake” vote and sent over 33,000 observers across the country to see how official turnout figures differed from those of monitors -- said there had been “unprecedented violations”.
His lawyer Ivan Zhdanov said the actual national turnout at 1700 GMT, when polls closed in Moscow, was 55% , according to data collected by monitors.
Mr. Navalny's opposition movement and the non-governmental election monitor Golos reported ballot stuffing, repeat voting and Putin supporters being bussed into polling stations en masse.
One election commission worker in the republic of Dagestan, which traditionally registers extremely high official turnout figures, told AFP around 50 men entered the station where he was working and physically assaulted an observer before stuffing a ballot box.
But the electoral commission dismissed most concerns, saying monitors sometimes misinterpret what they see.
