bentleys we're here to provide a safe and secure environment for everybody. the questions the appeals get everything you needed. and you are with archie and our special coverage of russia's presidential election with eighty percent of ballots counted blood in me to putin is in the lead with almost sixty five percent of the vote is that nearest rival the communist parties it cannot be enough and has a little over seventy percent to other contenders said a million off and flooded sure enough steam have accepted their defeat the communist party's candidate cannot be proven off condemned sunday's vote as not legitimate fair or transparent. and her special coverage of russia's presidential

election will be here on r.t. we will be bringing you updates in the hours ahead but for now the analyst analysis comes from our interview show spotlight in just a few moments. hello again for the welcome to spotlight the into the shall i was part and i'll go and i'll venture they were talking about the presidential election in which so this is it the voting is over and just moments ago we heard the latest on the preliminary results of this election it was a very special it's the first time up to

a constitutional reform of the russians elected a president for six years instead of float moreover is being the most expensive but the most transparent voting as anyone can watch it online so well that very special election become a milestone in russian political list which will discuss it now live with editor in chief of the moscow news to war and the head of the general political science department at the high school of economics yes i need political. the russians have cost down doesn't next president bill action committees across the country and abroad and on these accounts in the balance and process in the day from russia six presidential election is also the first in which a president is elected from seek some using standard for defined candidates were prime minister vladimir putin deal in anything for her and also this really does of

the political parties represented in the do not communist united is you cannot off leader of the liberal democratic party of ideas you know ski and soon gave me low enough to play russian on t.v. the election was from the cd of beats and containing and made the biggest. antigovernment release the country has seen since the time of year what provoked the heated political debate were the results of the sometimes parliamentary vote which landed a majority of seats to the ruling united russia party and we didn't in fruiting use a chanson mass protests in response to government promised the most transparent presidential election in russia's history nearly two hundred thousand cameras were installed polling stations across the country the online monitoring system which cost over three hundred million us dollars allowed anyone anywhere in the world to log on to our website she went online broadcast on russians cast in.

hello gentlemen to really only thank you very much for joining us on the show well first of all gentleman the the the font options to nearly any of the the public opinion poll company had published preliminary results just a rogue couple of days before the for the actual election and there it predicted that putin will win in the first round well this is pretty much the same that we are having today at this minute when we are hearing the first results from the from the central election committee well here here's the problem here's how here's how the the public opinion polls are those asian predicted that the voting will be well how accurate is that have how good were were they the stairwell will you. trust this year oh yeah i saw because there's protests of. curing the polls exit polls it's not the first time. sold our

pollsters are very very well equipped. of a lot of them want much more from from the western experience although personally i trust this of these figures. well there was information published during the last couple of weeks that putin's popularity was rising over the over the last month and it's specially over the last like like one or two weeks before the election that he really he really made sort of a breakthrough in the polls in the popularity so good but he didn't seem for me it didn't seem to do anything special so so do you believe this is circle and why is that happened. but i think it's probably true that the the protest movement strike livan out of steam. in that they didn't quite know how to take things forward. big problem of the opposition is that they don't really have what i think

a lot of people would regard as being a strong candidate if someone like alexina volley would have stood who is more on compromising towards the authorities than anyone who's standing in an election then i think that we could have actually seen a much more sort of close run thing. but i think that you also have to say you know look at some of the methods that have been used by the pope newton county i mean it's clear that everybody who was pushed into luzhniki and i went around the stadium that day and saw the hundreds and hundreds of buses which were there from the city government moscow city government school buses and lots of accounts of people who had been told look you have to go you could have two days off or coming along one day or something like that here all of those people were told come along for muslims or something like this and the doesn't the problem for putin is that this might fly in russia and put to the rest of the world it doesn't look quite

right it doesn't look quite like a free and fair election when you. have an impression that put in wasn't actually afraid of competition that the only thing that he was afraid needed still is afraid of the moment is that is that maybe not everybody will trust these elections to be legit everyone's doing his best to make them reject he's indigenous i agree. the main intrigue of this election is not about who will win it was clear and if you agree with me yes yes plotting on the second round would have been fair. because i think i think we had even had somebody who may really oppose putin but nobody in the nobody really did oppose you know i think to be honest i think that the real probable level of support for putin is somewhere around forty five to fifty percent . but you know he didn't have. a challenge for him

seriously. now the cv second place or for the same leader of companies united to go now for twenty years. people didn't buy it for again the result was predictable but you are right the main issue of this. election is the legitimacy and how to legitimize this is the big concern because you know this is open war and the global war and within russia we have some opposition groups who was definitely. would say that it wasn't free and for the international community here it's here or why it's attentively because people therefore it's a big concern now the only fresh face that we saw during this russian. profit off the billionaire and what he said i'm not in

a position to put in i'm like an alternative i mean we have the same platform we want the same thing i like we're buddies but but i'm just for those who are tired of putin they can vote for me but well isn't this a pretty strange it's true there's strange platform for for a presidential campaign i think i just think it's a little bit too much control yeah i mean you know we have someone in big government school who's been a fixture on the russian political scene for you know twenty years like the rest of them got in years ago and he's not really a serious candidate for president but a lot of people who like the kind of liberal slash social democratic politics that he stands for he's not really a threat to anyone and i couldn't really see the point of why he was excluded from the ballot you know to give you undertake you know presenting the corpus or for the least of signatures or for a few supporters and he violated the law well you see i don't know why. they gave

me a good example i mean you can make the same kind of mistake when you when you when you think you've done for these and you don't get released for no reason just you made a slight mistake to me that the the wrong picture i mean you you know he you put it and that is stuff of evil. they have you know which are very nice lawyers. and i wonder why they did this mistake so it's so to me it's very well you know you know i think you asked about the progress of as a real rival proportion but your ideological i believe. a center right candidates all there for oprah her office saw this and this is maybe why you said i'm not i know turning to have but not opposition to this is yes well let's see the latest results we have for them from from the central central election committee were like ten minutes ago in the news but here they are would be out at this minute is that

we having sixty two percent for couldn't seventeen for love and seven point five four of which is a pretty good result isn't it isn't it because there's he he's a he's a new comer here only just learning i think at the something that probably our viewers have to maybe bear in mind here which is i think that a lot of the people who voted for any of the candidate pollutant. really we even went into the into the polling station not even quite knowing who they were going to vote for who just knew they were going to vote for someone else a lot and they found any of the candidates ideal like we said i think the person who probably game the most out of this election campaign wasn't even standing it was alexina valley and of course it's very controversial but we'll see what he comes up with tomorrow when he launches his protest and we'll see whether i just stay within the law as well just to stay peaceful but i think that he's gained an

awful lot of support and i think he has his eye possibly on the next election campaign but i do think so well i mean the position well i actually i prefer to hear your opinion do you do you will i'll ask clearly do you believe that an internet creation like alex eleven is who's against he's the first out he's against he's always he doesn't trust these against then well well well he's a lot like one hundred percent one hundred percent computer computer virtual like person. but on like he is popular or like do you think that he may make a candidate for the next political political action like four years in four years' time five six years time i believe you think he has a good chances to become a politician the real problems and declaring not just that he is against but his positive program and he has a many many opportunities. to participate in municipal elections in resident

maybe viewers know that it's going to be a free elections. for the governors so it's a good opportunity for him to test himself as a politician very quick questions a question do you think the results will be changing as as we'll hear as we hear the difference account for from east to west of the country. for proper of. that's the sort of the third of all i think that the interesting thing is will the will of results could challenge them up to the lead be any kind of independent inquiry they are told of these meetings starting to be challenged we'll talk about it after a break just throwing today we're talking to journalists a wall and political analyst clearly needs only a coffee will be back shortly after we take a break so don't go away stay where you want. me.

to sleep. to move. just so. just see. if it's. such a was that so much of it was among the feeling goes i think the moment you give

a real commitment to decision two thousand and twelve russians have gone to the polls and chosen a new president always this campaign change politics in washington what does it say . welcome back to spotlight our algorithm often just to remind to the my guest today here in studio is tim wall chief of the moscow news and need probably carfare general political science department in the high school of economics and we all for have a special view if you are russia today a reporter in the central election committee you can see we're going to be a good evening and do you have any new figure is there any any new preliminary results of the vote as it's being counted we definitely do now that eighteen percent of the ballots across the country have been counted the outspoken favorite

prime minister vladimir putin is leading with sixty two point three percent of the vote coming second this communist candidate denied these you got enough with seventeen point six percent of the vote that image in the ski candidate from the liberal democratic party with seven point eight percent and independent candidate billionaire mikhail prokhorov is now getting seven point five percent of revote it's definitely every tree for a newcomer to the politics he only announced that he would be running for presidency several months ago and now the last one on the list is candidate from a just russia party said give me your on the plates you second election which is trying to get the country stop drop and he's getting only three point seven percent of the post now would somebody of service participating in this year's election we understand equal take longer for those observers to put signatures and final protocols to seal official results and pre-selection definitely sets

a record in terms of being the most expensive and the most closely monitored if you want the most transparent in the country's history and overall of over. three hundred million dollars have been spent on installing web cameras very expensive city we network across the country also there were transparent ballot boxes installed at all polling stations and a record number of service as well almost a million watchdogs have been closely monitoring these presidential vote in russia with seven hundred of them from abroad now russia's most recent patient wide ballot the december for parliamentary elections were married with accusations that the vote had been raked and those accusations were behind the government's decision to allow more observers in to install web cameras hundreds of websites on the internet have been showing. video materials from polling stations in all nine time zones of

the country all in all almost five days of video was recorded on these one day only of course the main intrigue in the around these surrounding this election is whether there'll be a second round now eve the be the one which now talks the least letting report in current prime minister in the end when all ballots are counted doesn't get that much needed magic figure of fifty percent of the bows but they'll be a second round and question very much alive who would be running against him in that second round if if again this is the case but time will tell we still have almost a day to go we remember from the previous nationwide ballot which was in december the state duma elections as there are so many times over and almost ninety eight thousand polling stations across the country will definitely take time to analyze and to count all the bells to preserve all the information so we expect the most

spinal results by the evening moscow time tomorrow in monte thank you thank you very much and your three minor children from the central election commission here for from. the ground zero of the russian election from from from the central command point where it's all happening so you know as we just heard the the situation there was pretty much stable of sixty something for a policeman seventeen something for for the runner up who was who was the communist leader at the moment. so we have started talking about the possible protests about the possible accusations after the elections and jim said that he would like to see that happens or not if if the people will be complaining about the legitimacy of the election well this is this is already started we heard that we help our hearth has already stated that he has reports of thousands of

irregularities do you think that something will happen close to what we saw after you leave this and move actions you know that. this is the big game is not an idiot because you know we know that we know about the responsibility of all participants of this presidential ball is quite obvious. for candidates i believe this is the results because it's a really transparent free and fair elections maybe thirst in the history of a very little history of the market democracy in russia otherwise they could be responsible for any possible unrest which could happen tomorrow morning from or night well let's hear from one of the observer is how the election we do have we do have an observer from here. and let's hear what this man had to say about the election. i saw two groups involved in multiple voting they arrived and left in the

same bus i managed to take pictures of one group but i scared then i grew disintegrated wouldn't reach another precinct but the second group of farm here we can track them down and the police detained them and took them in which it was. i'm sorry to see it's impossible to find out who the go to people. this was the guy who controlled the russians on the part of the communists so to him there do you do you believe that we'll hear a lot more of such accusations of regularity while our unfortunate think that we will i mean i've been watching the process all also the day today and busy looking at media reports and videos online and you have to say that the pattern looks pretty much like the december elections now of course it's one thing. making the accusations it's nothing proven but i think that i think that the main problem for the authorities is. as we've talked about before how does the government legitimize these elections. the problem is we don't have

a non-system candidate if you i mean you maybe you can count pocket as a non-system country but would be only half so what we do have a non-theist and candid in british elections to. their work parliamentary party the i mean i would. i do think it's a phrase we did have an i don't think it's present difficult to register a political party that is here that so. is going to view very very easily the next couple of months you are a traitor but i think that the main problems are so does legitimacy and you know whatever the result of this election if there is twenty thirty percent even more of the population who doesn't think that this was a legitimate election. and is willing to protest then the authorities have a problem because later in the day if there is something that brings into the display into question if the people who supported putin this time because he promised to protect their jobs and their pensions and their salaries if that

somehow falls apart because the world economic crisis then the then the government has a problem. what do you think will the reaction will there are irregularities that at any elections all around the world will this depend on how the scale of the social let it also the different the different things in reaction of the government how the winner do you think the reaction of the winner this time will be the will be similar to the reaction december when there have been practically no reaction i spoke with different and different i mean all of those who were all who will be of course and will be who think that they. have broken the law and the coming to some procedural irregular good. they will be brought to account responsible or even punished according to the law this will prove that the government really starts or it is really interested in him in the

fair and free elections where we have two other observers that we have. in this report are actually met in the city of two men and here's another opinion about how the elections when. as of now we have not recorded any violations but i should note we have not counted any ballots yet the turnout was quite impressive but if you ask me what i think about these elections i can see the whole process was transparent. here we hear these spokespersons for me who know who says that there was fraud but but if we hear one of his spokespeople say that at this particular polling station everything was quiet we have another one we have another representative of that important also. in the tamil region. he actually and he actually also said they were also a couple of hours ago he actually said that everything went smoothly and there were

there were no irregularities and this particular proposition so. the thing is the main question is that do we actually expect that whatever of regularities there may have been that they will actually influence the final result or not. plymouth up to international community i don't know i think that this is pretty much as i expected but i think i think the problem is you have to look at the election process as a whole and i think it starts with you know who you allowed to register a scoundrel it starts with who has the the who has the dominance on the t.v. airwaves and i think that i am disappointed to be honest that the authorities didn't just allow a sort of a more level playing field but have you heard this this interesting technology that

channel two state of the vision has announced the they made up a special special technology sort of machine that counted second split seconds of every candidate that was the number one was you got a friend put it was number two number three was present on their. average a one hour fifty three minutes and put in one tower we have one foot in his first this are the figures it's you know you don't believe. in iowa i also got an impression that there was more put in there the others but here we are the figure is only because i couldn't quite believe it when it himself did not participate in the debates therefore as it was it was heard. very. well actually actual gentlemen we're running out of time so so the last question i would like i would like to ask you is. the next ten days all the ten days everything's planned around moscow meetings every day of every major major square

there's going to be meetings that we're going to be fun or is it going to be just. i don't know so i'm saying goodbye to me good of. i mean i think that there is a there is an inherent danger in the situation because you've got a hardcore of the opposition supporters now who will i think you know feel the pinch. heated one field that is sort of come to the end of the road being able to protest peacefully and i hope that it doesn't develop into a confrontation with the security forces thank you thelma thank you very much unfortunately ran out of time but we'll see more results of the election cows here of russia in the russia today in a matter of minutes that's it for now from all of us here of course why it will be back until then and take it.

all people. get are sometimes see a story and it seems so horny you think you understand it and then you blame something else if you're serious.