Putin headed for easy re-election in Russia's presidential race — 6 more years

Russian President and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin exits a polling booth as he prepares to cast his ballot during Russia's presidential election in Moscow on March 18, 2018.(Photo: Yuri Kadobnov, AP)

Longtime Russian President Vladimir Putin headed toward easy re-election Sunday as authorities pressured citizens to vote in overwhelming numbers, offering giveaways and prizes at the polls.

Casting his ballot in Moscow, Putin reflected on his expected victory for another six-year term: "The program that I propose for the country is the right one," he said.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was barred from running against Putin, said he boycotted the election and advised other Russians to do the same.

Navalny was prevented from being a candidate after a criminal conviction widely viewed as politically motivated. He urged supporters not to vote because of the absence of any real competition, despite seven other names on the ballot.

Navalny posted a video on YouTube, saying that “on election day, one should usually want to say ‘I voted,’ but in fact I’m here to say that I didn’t go to vote.”

Given the lack of real competition, authorities struggled against voter apathy, and pushed for a strong voter turnout from Russia’s nearly 111 million voters.

Putin has been president or prime minister since December 1999, making him the only leader that a generation of Russians have ever known, and the longest-serving leader since former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Putin's re-election comes amid rising tension with the West, particularly with the United Kingdom, which last week accused Russia of using a nerve agent to poison a former spy and his daughter living in England. In addition, U.S. federal prosecutors are investigating whether Russian-linked groups interfered during the 2016 presidential election.

Russia's election monitors reported irregularities at voting stations across country, even though authorities were under orders to ensure that the voting was free and fair after violations marred Putin's last election in 2012. Putin had faced a serious opposition movement then but has since boosted his popularity with Russia's actions in Ukraine and Syria. 

People cast their ballots at a polling station in Yelizovo, Russian Far East, Russia, on March. 18, 2018. (Photo: Alexander Petrov, AP)

The English-language Moscow Times newspaper marked the election with a series of stories on young people it dubbed “Generation P,” highlighting some of the 1.3 million people born the year Putin first became president.

Putin was first named president in late 1999 after the resignation of Boris Yeltsin and was elected to two terms. In 2008 he was replaced by Dmitry Medvedev, who named him prime minister, and then Putin was again elected president in 2012.

Members of a local election commission prepare a polling station ahead of Russia's presidential election in Simferopol, Crimea. The election will be held on March 18, 2018.  (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

The eight presidential candidates were barred from campaigning Sunday, but much-loved entertainers appealed to voters in a televised message aired throughout the day to fulfill their civic duty and go to the polls. Voters also faced billboards celebrating Russian greatness — a major theme of Putin's leadership.

Putin has traveled across Russia pledging to raise wages, pour more funds into the country's crumbling health care and education and modernize dilapidated infrastructure.

Yevgeny Roizman, the mayor of Russia's fourth-largest city, Yekaterinburg, told rhe Associated Press that local officials and state employees have all received orders "from higher up" to make sure the presidential vote turnout is over 60%.

"They are using everything: schools, kindergartens, hospitals — the battle for the turnout is unprecedented," said Roizman, one of the rare opposition politicians to hold a significant elected office.

Authorities also appealed to patriotic feelings by holding the vote on the anniversary of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Polls show that most Russians see the takeover of that Black Sea peninsula as a major achievement despite subsequent Western sanctions.

Turnout-boosting efforts have been the most visible feature of the campaign. In Moscow, authorities spent $870,000 on balloons and decorations at polling stations. In Moscow, first-time voters were given free tickets for pop concerts, and health authorities offered free cancer screenings at selected polling stations. In the southern city of Tambov, the state-sponsored Youth Parliament backed an Instagram competition. Voters who took selfies at polling stations could enter a raffle for high-end electronics, including an iPhone X.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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