“Now the history repeats itself, because it's cyclical, so it's going up in spiral, but everything repeats itself. And all of us, we are standing here together like comrades in arms. So, I would like to thank citizens of Russia, all of them, because we are one team. I would like to thank all the citizens of Russia who came to the polling stations and voted,” Putin told journalists as the ballot counting process was still on, but already showed him leading in the polls.
Several leaders of the Global South have already congratulated Vladimir Putin on the landslide victory, mostly from the Latin American nations. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was the first of them.
According to the Kremlin, the Russian leader has not time to celebrate his re-election: he has a very busy schedule.
Russia's presidential election took place from March 15 to 17. Apart from Vladimir Putin, three candidates participated in the presidential race: Nikolay Kharitonov (СPRF), Leonid Slutsky (LDPR) and Vladislav Davankov (New People).
Putin secured the majority of votes not only in the capital city of Moscow, but also in the newly-incorporated territories -- that is Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, whose population voted to become part of Russia in late 2022.
According to the law, it is neccesary to collect more than 50% of the votes to win the election.