Amid many allegations of electorate fraud, Vladimir Putin won the presidential election in Russia to stay in power for another six years.
According to the AP, Putin claimed victory Sunday night when fewer than a quarter of the votes had been counted. He spoke to a rally just outside the Kremlin walls of tens of thousands of supporters, many of them government workers or employees of state-owned companies who had been ordered to attend.
“I promised that we would win and we have won!” Putin shouted to the flag-waving crowd. “We have won in an open and honest struggle.” He said the election showed that “our people can easily distinguish a desire for renewal and revival from political provocations aimed at destroying Russia’s statehood and usurping power.”
He ended his speech with the triumphant declaration: “Glory to Russia!”
Earlier in the day, after Putin voted in Moscow, three topless women, members of the Ukrainian protest group Femen tried to steal the ballot box in protest against Putin.
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Bombay Wire 