Sham election hands Putin six more years

Russia’s Central Election Commission said Putin won over 87 per cent of the vote on a record turnout of 74 per cent in a presidential election held over three days and eleven time zones, handing him six more years in power. Anti-Kremlin resistance units seized ammunition stockpiles in the extreme west of the country, but didn’t threaten his authority. There were no genuine opposition candidates. Nor was there ever any doubt about the result. Russian propagandists claimed that Putin won up to 95 per cent of the vote in the occupied territories of Ukraine, where people were forced to vote under pressure from the Russian army in the absence of independent observers.