MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. The Russian presidential election took place amid unprecedented foreign pressure, Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said at the Council’s meeting on Wednesday. She also expressed hope that the global community would adequately assess numerous attempts at election meddling.

"The recent election’s results are impressive particularly because the vote took place amid unprecedented attempts at exerting pressure, which came down to political hysteria, particularly in the week preceding the election, as well as cyber attacks at the Central Election Commission’s servers, illegal actions aimed at preventing our citizens from casting their ballots - as it happened in Ukraine - and many other things of this kind. Let us hope that the global community will adequately assess all those activities," Matviyenko said.

The Russian presidential election was held on March 18. According to early estimates provided by Russia’s Central Election Commission, incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin is headed for a landslide victory in the presidential race having garnered 76.66% with 99.84% of ballots counted. The voter turnout stood at 67.74%. Pamfilova stressed no serious complaints had been registered during the election day. In conformity with the law, the Central Election Commission is to sum up the election results no later than ten days after voting and make them public within three days after signing the relevant protocol.