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Vladimir Putin (M) has been in power in Russia for around a quarter of a century.
© Gavriil Grigorov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP/dpa
The election commission in Russia gives Kremlin leader Putin the best result of his elections so far.
The West criticizes the vote as unfair.
But there are also congratulations.
Moscow - After more than two decades in power, Russian President Vladimir Putin was confirmed in office for the fifth time in a controversial election with 87.28 percent of the vote.
“This is a record result,” said electoral officer Ella Pamfilova on Monday when the results were presented.
Participation is also at its highest level ever at 77.44 percent.
The 71-year-old, who was first elected in 2000, can rule for another six years.
According to the election commission, a total of more than 76 million Russians voted for Putin.
Around 114 million people were eligible to vote.
According to Pamfilova, the high voter turnout is a response of Russian citizens to the pressure that has been exerted on the country from outside.
According to reports from independent observers, state institutions and corporations in particular exerted massive pressure on employees to vote.
“We have never seen a presidential election that did so little to meet the standards of the constitution,” said the independent election observer organization “Golos”.
Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who lives in exile, cast doubt on the results.
“These are results that no normal person in Russia can believe in,” said the former oil entrepreneur in Berlin.
In his estimation, at most every second voter took part;
He puts Putin's electorate in Russia at 30 to 40 percent.
Pamfilova, on the other hand, described the allegations of an unfree and unfair election as “primitive cave thinking”.
These prejudices are only fueled by the West, which foresaw Putin's victory but did not agree with the result.
“We are convinced that our country is free, with a free will and a highly educated people that will not tolerate pressure from within or without,” she said.
The Kremlin also rejected criticism of the vote.
New EU punitive measures against Putin supporters
In fact, Putin's victory was widely expected given the restrictions on the opposition.
After Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Olaf Scholz also refrained from sending a congratulatory telegram to Putin.
“The Chancellor did not congratulate.
And you know that we see this so-called election in Russia last weekend as neither free nor fair,” said spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann when asked by journalists in Berlin.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced new punitive measures by the EU against Putin's supporters.
“Today we will introduce sanctions in view of the death of Alexei Navalny,” said the Green politician at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
“The election in Russia was an election without an election.” Baerbock explained that the election process not only shows President Putin’s nefarious actions against his own people, but also against the United Nations Charter.
The fact that so-called elections were also held in parts of Ukraine, parts of Moldova and parts of Georgia was contrary to international law.
Julia Navalnaya recently lost her husband.
© Carsten Koall/dpa
The French government has also criticized the circumstances of the Russian presidential election.
The expected result was noted, said a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Paris on Monday.
“The conditions for a free, pluralistic and democratic election have once again not been met,” it continued.
Congratulations from Beijing
In contrast, the Kremlin chief received congratulations from several authoritarian countries.
The heads of state of Nicaragua, Tajikistan and Venezuela were among the first to congratulate.
Other well-wishers included North Korea's head of state Kim Jong Un, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi.
Pyongyang and Tehran are supplying weapons for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
Later, Putin's most important ally, China's state and party leader Xi Jinping, also congratulated his colleague by telephone on the election results.
He trusts that Russia can achieve even greater successes in the development and construction of the country under Putin's leadership, Xi said, according to Chinese state television on Monday.
China and Russia are “strategic partners in the new era,” Beijing’s new foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian previously said.
Under the leadership of Xi and Putin, the two countries' relations will continue to advance, he said.
This time, no observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), whose assessment is important for the international recognition of a result, were invited to the election.
dpa