Russia’s incumbent president Vladimir Putin has garnered 76.65% of the vote in the March 18 election with 99% of the ballots counted, the Central Election Commission said, according to TASS agency.
Director of the Lenin State Farm Pavel Grudinin, nominated by the Communist Party of Russia, is second with 11.82% of the vote, while leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky is third with 5.68%.
More than 55.4 mln people voted for Putin, while over 8.54 mln supported Grudinin and around 4.1 mln voted in Zhirinovsky’s favor.
TV personality and socialite Ksenia Sobchak, nominated by the Civil Initiative party, is fourth with 1.66% (over 1.19 mln votes).
Next are head of the Yabloko Party’s federal political committee Grigory Yavlinsky (1.04%), chairman of the Party of Growth and Russian Presidential Envoy for Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov (0.75%), Maxim Suraikin, nominated by the Communists of Russia party (0.68%) and head of the Russian People’s Union party Sergei Baburin (0.65%).
Speaking at his campaign headquarters, Putin announced that all changes in Russian government will happen after the inauguration ceremony.
“All changes to the government must be performed by a president, who entered his new term, so now I will think about what needs to be done and how it should be done. All changes will happen after the inauguration,” Putin said, as quoted by Sputnik news agency.