Russian President Vladimir Putin won a landslide re-election victory on Sunday, extending his rule over the world’s largest country for another six years at a time when his ties with the West are on a hostile trajectory. Putin has promised to use his new term to beef up Russia’s defenses against the West and to raise living standards. In a widely-expected result, an exit poll by pollster VTsIOM showed Putin, who has already dominated the political landscape for the last 18 years, had won 73.9 percent of the vote. Russia’s Central Election Commission recognized that there were some irregularities, but were likely to dismiss wider criticism and declare the overall result legitimate. The longer-term question is whether Putin will soften his anti-Western rhetoric now the election is won.

Source: Huffington Post March 18, 2018 18:11 UTC