MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. The external pressure on the Russian presidential elections was caused, among other things, by the fact that Western states knew the outcome in advance and they did not like it, Russian Central Election Commission head Ella Pamfilova said.
"Our opponents, who consider us an enemy, they are far from being idiots. They predicted, studied, understood what the election outcome could be, and they did not like it," the official said.
She said that the degree of the aggressive influence on the elections, the desire to "discredit, if not disrupt them," were unprecedented this time.
The Presidential elections in Russia took place between March 15 and 17. This was the first time that the election lasted for three days and involved online voting, which was available in about one third of Russian regions. According to the Central Election Commission data after counting 99.43% of ballots, incumbent head of state Vladimir Putin leads with 87.32% of votes.