Russia Celebrates Peaceful Transfer of Power From Putin to Putin

Officials Praise Fiercely Competitive Race Between Putin, 3 Men Who Agree With Putin

MOSCOW — Russia's Central Election Commission certified the results of the country's presidential election Thursday, formally approving the transfer of power from Vladimir Putin to Vladimir Putin in what officials described as a historic and seamless democratic transition.

Putin secured 87.28% of the vote across the three-day balloting period, which the CEC called an unprecedented show of public trust. The remaining 12.72% was distributed among three Kremlin-approved candidates whose campaigns consisted primarily of agreeing with the incumbent on TV.

"This was a free, fair and fiercely competitive election," said CEC Chair Ella Pamfilova, who noted that voters had a choice between four candidates, one of whom was the sitting president with control of the state apparatus, the military and all major media outlets, and three of whom were not.

The only candidate who had publicly opposed the war in Ukraine, Boris Nadezhdin, was disqualified in February after the commission determined that more than 15% of his 105,000 endorsement signatures were defective. Nadezhdin had argued that tens of millions of Russians intended to vote for him. The CEC found this claim unsupported by the approximately 9,000 signatures it invalidated.

Turnout reached a post-Soviet record of 77.49%, a figure the Kremlin did not attribute to the introduction of workplace ballot tracking and armed soldiers accompanying election officials door-to-door in occupied Ukrainian territories. One video from Luhansk showed an elderly woman casting her ballot while a man in army fatigues stood beside her with a rifle across his chest. Officials said the soldier was there to assist with accessibility.

Former president Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Putin on his "splendid victory" before the results were announced, in what a Kremlin spokesperson called "a reflection of the predictability of democratic outcomes in a stable society."

Europe's biggest election monitoring body declined to send observers, citing the absence of an invitation. Russia said the snub was mutual. Independent watchdog Golos, which had documented fraud in prior elections, was barred from monitoring after being designated a "foreign agent" in 2013 — a label it earned, officials noted, by documenting fraud in prior elections.

Putin will serve until 2030, when he will be constitutionally barred from seeking a seventh term. Constitutional amendments addressing this issue are expected by 2029. ■