Moscow, March 19 (RHC) - Russian President Vladimir Putin won a landslide re-election victory on Sunday, and he will lead the world’s largest country for another six years .
According to the Russian Central Election Commission, with 99.84% of the ballots counted, Putin had garnered 76.66% of the vote, winning more votes than he did in the 2012 election (63.6%) and beating his own record set in 2004 (71.31%).
Putin thanked the Russian people for trusting him and promised to work as hard as before, but achieve better results.
In a victory speech near Red Square, Putin told a cheering crowd he interpreted the win as a vote of confidence for what he had achieved in tough conditions.
“It’s very important to maintain this unity. We will think about the future of our great Motherland,” said Putin, before leading the crowd in repeated chants of “Russia!”
While addressing members of his election campaign team, he mentioned his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly, reiterating that the country needed to achieve a development breakthrough.
"We can do that, we have achieved a level where it is possible to make a breakthrough," he said. "We must take advantage of this historic opportunity and our achievements in every field in order to do that. But of course, people need to understand what we will be doing," Putin said.
