President Zardari congratulates Russia's Putin on election victory

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday congratulated his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on his victory in the presidential elections and hoped that Pakistan and Russia’s ties would grow further under his leadership.

“My heartiest felicitations to the President of the Russian Federation H.E Vladimir Putin on his victory in Presidential elections. I am confident that relations between Pakistan and Russia will grow further under your dynamic leadership,” said President Zardari on X.

The president’s statement came hours after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's congratulatory message to the Russian leader.

“I congratulate H.E. Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation on his re-election and look forward to working with him to further strengthen Pakistan-Russia relations,” said PM Shehbaz.

President Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia's election on Sunday, cementing his already tight grip on power in a victory he said showed Moscow had been right to stand up to the West and send its troops into Ukraine.

Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who first rose to power in 1999, made it clear that the result should send a message to the West that its leaders will have to reckon with an emboldened Russia, whether in war or in peace, for many more years to come.

The outcome means Putin, 71, is set to embark on a new six-year term that will see him overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia's longest-serving leader for more than 200 years if he completes it.

Putin won 87.8% of the vote, the highest ever result in Russia's post-Soviet history, according to an exit poll by pollster the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM).

The Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) put Putin on 87%. First official results indicated the polls were accurate. The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other nations have said the vote was neither free nor fair due to the imprisonment of political opponents and censorship.

Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov finished second with just under 4%, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third, and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, partial results suggested.

While Putin's re-election was not in doubt given his control over Russia and the absence of any real challengers, the former KGB spy had wanted to show he had the overwhelming support of Russians.

Nationwide turnout was 74.22% at 1800 GMT when polls closed, election officials said, surpassing 2018 levels of 67.5%.

There was no independent tally of how many of Russia's 114 million voters took part in the opposition demonstrations, amid tight security involving tens of thousands of police and security officials.