MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin won the majority of votes of expatriate Russian citizens who cast ballots in Russia’s presidential election in such foreign countries as the United States, Germany, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Australia and Armenia, Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said.

"In fact, <…> 56.82% of [expatriate] citizens voted for Putin in Germany, 75.22% in Estonia, 70.6% in Latvia, 53.6% in Australia, 54.7% in Armenia, 42.23% in the US as a whole, and 63.33% in Washington, DC, where the embassy is located," she said at a CEC meeting, summarizing the preliminary results of the presidential election, especially the vote in unfriendly countries.

The CEC chairwoman also explained why Armenia was listed among unfriendly countries. "Because there, since we have a large number of expatriates in Georgia and there is no [polling] station [in Georgia], they [Russian expatriates] came from Georgia. They went from Georgia to Turkey, to Armenia, to Kazakhstan [to cast their ballots]," Pamfilova explained.

Russia held its first-ever three-day presidential election over the period March 15-17. Remote electronic voting, also a first, was available to voters in 29, or about one-third, of the country’s 89 regions.