DMITRY MEDVEDEV has secured Russia's presidency with a landslide election victory, exit polls showed last night, confirming the predictions of supporters and also critics who called the ballot a Kremlin-orchestrated farce, writes Daniel McLaughlinin Moscow
The polls gave Mr Medvedev 70.1 per cent of votes, ahead of communist leader Gennady Zyuganov with 16.8 per cent and ultra-nationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky with 11.4 per cent. Political novice Andrei Bogdanov was expected to take just 1.7 per cent of ballots. Overall turnout was estimated at 67 per cent.
Mr Medvedev (42) is a lawyer who first worked with Mr Putin in the mayor's office of their native St Petersburg in the early 1990s. Mr Putin brought his protege to Moscow after he became president in 2000, and made him head of the Kremlin administration, then deputy prime minister and chairman of huge energy firm Gazprom.
Once Mr Putin chose Mr Medvedev to succeed him last December, his election win was never in doubt. However, its scale was ensured by a campaign in which he enjoyed far more media coverage than his rivals and liberal challengers were excluded from the race.
"I'm in a good mood," Mr Medvedev said after voting with wife Svetlana on a day of changeable weather in Moscow. "Spring has arrived. There's a little rain, but it's pleasant. The season has changed."
His rivals were far less sanguine.
"This is a secret service KGB operation to transfer power from one person to another," said former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who was barred from running due to alleged fraud on his candidacy papers. "It has nothing to do with elections."
Former chess champion Garry Kasparov, who also accuses the Kremlin of blocking his candidacy, led a small protest near Red Square, shadowed by riot police. "Russian citizens are being forced to take part in a farce which is called an election, but is actually all Kremlin intrigue," he said.
While allies of Mr Medvedev defended the vote, Mr Zyuganov said he would take proof of widespread violations to court.
Only 300 official election observers monitored the vote. The main European democracy watchdog refused to take part, saying the Kremlin would not allow it to enter Russia early enough to conduct a thorough evaluation of the campaign.
Reports from across Russia suggested regional officials, under direct or indirect pressure from Moscow to deliver high figures for turnout and support for Mr Medvedev, were urging managers to ensure their workers cast their ballots.
"We have had dozens of calls from various regions telling us how the heads of factories and institutes are ensuring this," said Grigory Melkonyan of Golos, Russia's leading independent election monitoring group
Liliya Shibanova, the general director of Golos, which stationed 2,000 monitors around Russia, concluded: "The picture is very grim. It's clear that in the regions where turnout is impossibly high, upwards of 90 per cent, the proportion of pro-Medvedev votes is also impossibly high."
The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, said the election was "better than the last one, but far from what it should be". He was cautiously optimistic about Mr Medvedev, however.
"I think he is well-prepared, educated and modern. He has good experience as a lawyer, he's bright. But there is one drawback - he didn't work at the federal level long enough," Mr Gorbachev said.
Mr Medvedev has committed himself to following Mr Putin's policy of encouraging stability and steady growth, but will face pressure to modernise decrepit infrastructure and cut inflation. The most intriguing aspect of his presidency could be how he works with Mr Putin, who is expected to serve as his prime minister. "I think that he will, at least at the beginning, be the key figure," said Kremlin-linked analyst Sergei Markov.