Putin's man wins Russian elections amid criticism[fr][de] 

According to preliminary polls, published on 3 March and based on a 99% count, the 42-year old First Deputy Prime Minister took just over 70% of the vote, allowing for his inauguration on 7 May. 

Hailing his victory, Medvedev said that his presidency would be a "direct continuation" of current policies and that his future work with Putin, who will serve as his prime minister, "may bring interesting results for the country and become a positive factor in the development of our country". 

Medvedev dismissed claims that he would be little more than a puppet figure for the ex-KGB agent who has ruled over Russia since 2000, insisting that the division of powers between the prime minister and the president, who notably leads on foreign policy, would remain unchanged.

Results indicated Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov came in second place with 17.8% of the vote, the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democrat party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky third with 9.4% and the pro-European Democratic party chief Andrey Bogdanov last with just 1.3%.

The Central Electoral Commission said 69.6% of Russia's 109 million registered voters had taken part in the poll, with Medvedev's clan insisting the high turnout was a sign of "the huge interest shown by our citizens in these elections". Russians wanted to "choose their head of state and didn't want to leave the choice to anyone else. This shows that these elections were not decided in advance and had a real choice," said Medvedev's campaign leader Sergei Sobyanin. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Medvedev's victory, saying it would "be a guarantee of maintaining the course we have chosen together and been implementing together." He thanked citizens, saying "Russian civil society has been proved an efficient and responsible one" and that the elections had been carried out "in line with the constitution and laws".

But foreign observers  and critics said the poll was a "mockery", with candidates barred from participating in the ballot, pressure on citizens to cast their vote in order to raise participation figures, the use of Kremlin resources in support of Medvedev's campaign and a state media bias in his favour. 

A White House spokesman said that the "the United States looks forward to working with him [Medvedevev], but avoided commenting on the election itself. 

The reaction of US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton was by far more critical, saying that the "presidential election in Russia [...] marks a milestone in that country's retreat from democracy". 

The reaction from the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was sober and cautious, congratulating Medvedev on his election, but missing the opportunity to invite him to Downing Street. 

Britain would judge Russia's new leadership "on its actions and the result of its actions", Brown's spokesman said, adding, however, that the UK hopes to get Russia's cooperation "on a number of issues". 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel  said that the Russian people had voted for "continuity and stability" and offered the new President "comprehensive cooperation", in particular in regard to modernising Russia and strengthening human rights. 

The government, however, also regretted that international election observers could not fully carry out their responsibilities. 

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso congratulated Medvedev on his election, expressing his confidence that under his leeadership Russia and the EU will "consolidate and develop their strategic partnership, based not only on common interests but also on respect for values [...]. 

Joseph Daul, Chairman of the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament, also expressed his party's wish for the planned strategic partnership between Brussels and Moscow to be "formalised, once the conditions have been met". He admitted that "both sides have different points of view on a number of subjects, notably on the question of human rights" but also identified "common interests in sensitive areas such as security or energy". 

Graham Watson, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament, agreed that Russian citizens had been deprived of free and fair elections. "This further undermines commitments that Russia has made to the Council of Europe and reinforces the fear of authoritarianism," he said. 

The Organisation for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) had refused to send any election observers to monitor the poll, saying restrictions were so strict the mission would have been meaningless. In the end, there were just 300 international observers for 96,000 voting stations, and the independent Russian election monitoring group Golos said it was flooded with complaints of irregularities and attempts to influence voters.

Andreas Gross, head of the 22-member delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), criticised that the election were neither fair, nor just. The Russian people had not been able to "fully exploit its democratic potential". 

Former chess champion and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov, who has put together a petition numbering over 5,000 signatures which calls on the world not to recognise the results, said: "This election is the imposition of Putin's successor. It is one hand-picked candidate replacing another. If the leaders of the free world accept Medvedev they will be approving and giving credibility to this farce." 

"I think that if the elections had been in the slightest bit honest then we would have got a significantly different result," agreed Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who said he was convinced he would have got around 30% of the vote and intended to challenge the results in court.