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Putin receives 76.66% of votes after 99.84% of ballots counted

Voter turnout reached 67.49%, according to preliminary data

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/. Russia’s incumbent head of state Vladimir Putin garnered 76.66% of the vote in the March 18 election with 99.84% of the ballots counted, the Central Election Commission said.

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Putin garners record amount of votes that tops all recent Russian presidential elections

Director of the Lenin State Farm Pavel Grudinin, nominated by the Communist Party of Russia, is second with 11.80% of the vote, while leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky is third with 5.66%.

Voter turnout for the Russian presidential election reached 67.49%, according to preliminary data.

"[According to data] as of 10.45 a.m. Moscow Time, 73,432,312 people voted [in the Russian presidential election on March 18], the turnout reaches 67.49%," Bulayev said.

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Vladimir Putin Russian presidential election 2018

Military operation in Ukraine

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US House passes procedural vote on Ukraine aid bill

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West wants to make Transnistria hotbed of tension — Lavrov

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Armenia’s relations with Russia not at their highest — top diplomat

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Ukrainian POW exposes poor battlefield performance of NATO-supplied Javelins, NLAWs

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Final statement by G7 top diplomats to call for supplying more air defenses to Kiev

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Armenia has to define CSTO’s zone of responsibility on its territory, says Lavrov

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Three Ukrainian soldiers swim across Dnieper to surrender to Russian troops — governor

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Polish premier refuses to hand over his country’s Patriot systems to Ukraine

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NATO discussing transfer of ‘deep precision strike capabilities’ to Ukraine — Stoltenberg

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Ukraine’s new ethnic minorities law insufficient to protect Magyars — Hungarian president

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Two pilots of jet that crashed in southern Russia hospitalized

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