The vote was tainted by widespread reports of ballot-box stuffing and forced voting, but the complaints will likely do little to undermine Putin. Putin’s main challenges in the vote were to obtain a huge margin of victory in order to claim an indisputable mandate. Russian officials denounced both cases as efforts to interfere in the Russian election. But the disputes likely worked in Putin’s favour, reinforcing the official contention that the West is infected with “Russophobia” and is determined to undermine Putin and Russian cultural values. Casting his ballot in Moscow, Putin was confident of victory, saying he would consider any percentage of votes a success.

Source: National Post March 18, 2018 18:56 UTC