Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday congratulated Russia's Vladimir Putin for securing a record victory in Presidential elections. In a post on X, PM Modi said, "Warm congratulations to H.E. Mr. Vladimir Putin on his re-election as the President of the Russian Federation."
“Look forward to working together to further strengthen the time-tested Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia in the years to come,” PM Modi said.
Russia went to polls earlier this month. The three-day election ended on Sunday. Vladimir Putin secured an unprecedented fifth term as president of Russia on Monday, winning nearly 90 percent of the votes, as per the Russian poll body.
Putin faced no serious challenges the elections happened amid the strictest crackdown on opposition and free speech since Soviet times, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, an independent Russian vote monitoring group said on Monday that the presidential election that Vladimir Putin won in a landslide victory with nearly 90 percent of the vote was the most fraudulent and corrupt in the country's history.
China congratulated Putin, saying, "China and Russia are each other's largest neighbours and comprehensive strategic cooperative partners in the new era." President Xi Jinping said the result “fully reflects the support of the Russian people,” Chinese state media reported.
Meanwhile, the European Union said the elections took place in an ever-shrinking political space, which has resulted in an alarming increase of violations of civil and political rights, and precluded many candidates from running, including all those opposed to Russia’s illegal war of aggression.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, "I am happy with everything and want everything to continue as it is now."
President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus said, “The results are, of course, stunning. It’s a serious signal to the West, which has sought to destabilize the domestic situation in Russia.”
David Cameron, UK foreign secretary, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, "The polls have closed in Russia, following the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) monitoring. This is not what free and fair elections look like.”
(With inputs from AFP, AP)
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