MOSCOW – Vladimir Putin won Russia’s presidential election on Sunday withalmost 74 percent of the vote, according to an official exit poll, with theopposition reporting ballot stuffing and other cases of alleged fraud.

Putin, who has ruled Russia for almost two decades, stood against sevenother candidates, but his most vocal critic Alexei Navalny was barred fromthe ballot for legal reasons and the final outcome was never in doubt.

The Kremlin was hoping for high voter numbers to give greater legitimacy toPutin’s historic fourth term as Russia faces increasing isolation on theworld stage over a spy poisoning in Britain and a fresh round of USsanctions.

About 107 million Russians were eligible to cast ballots and the centralelection commission said turnout was 60 percent, after the authorities usedboth the carrot and the stick to boost participation.

Selfie competitions, giveaways, food festivals and children’s entertainerswere laid on at polling booths in a bid to create a festive atmospherearound the election.

But employees of state and private companies reported coming under pressureto vote, while students were threatened with problems in their exams oreven expulsion if they did not take part, according to theopposition-leaning Novaya Gazeta newspaper.

The exit poll by state-owned pollster VTsIOM at 1,200 voting stationsaround Russia projected that Putin had won 73.9 percent of the vote, upfrom 64 percent six years ago.

Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin performed better than expected, with11.2 percent according to the exit poll, but the results of all othercandidates including former reality TV host Ksenia Sobchak were forecast tobe in single figures.

– ‘Unprecedented violations’ –

Navalny — who called on his supporters to boycott the “fake” vote and sentover 33,000 observers across the country to see how official turnoutfigures differed from those of monitors — said there had been”unprecedented violations”.

His lawyer Ivan Zhdanov said the actual national turnout at 1700 GMT, whenpolls closed in Moscow, was 55 percent, according to data collected bymonitors.

Navalny’s opposition movement and the non-governmental election monitorGolos reported ballot stuffing, repeat voting and Putin supporters beingbussed into polling stations en masse.

One election commission worker in the republic of Dagestan, whichtraditionally registers extremely high official turnout figures, told AFParound 50 men entered the station where he was working and physicallyassaulted an observer before stuffing a ballot box.

But the electoral commission dismissed most concerns, saying monitorssometimes misinterpret what they see.

– Putin ‘a hero’ –

Since first being elected president in 2000, Putin has stamped his totalauthority on the world’s biggest country, muzzling opposition, puttingtelevision under state control and reasserting Moscow’s standing abroad.

The 65-year-old former KGB officer used an otherwise lacklustrepresidential campaign to emphasise Russia’s role as a major world power,boasting of its “invincible” new nuclear weapons in a pre-election speech.

Casting his ballot in Moscow, Putin said he would be pleased with anyresult giving him the right to continue as president.

“I am sure the programme I am offering is the right one,” said the man whois already Russia’s longest-serving leader since Stalin.

Most people who spoke to AFP said they voted for Putin, praising him forrestoring stability and national pride after the humiliating collapse ofthe USSR.

“Of course I’m for Putin, he’s a leader,” said Olga Matyunina, a65-year-old retired economist.

“After he brought Crimea back, he became a hero to me.”

Sunday marks four years since Putin signed a treaty declaring Crimea to bepart of Russia in a move that triggered a pro-Kremlin insurgency in eastUkraine, a conflict that has claimed over 10,000 lives. -APP/AFP