which beasts in which grayson if you remove the sun from steve it's. starts on t.v. dot com. this is our g.'s presidential election coverage live from moscow with me john thomas now prime minister vladimir putin looks set to take russia's top job for a third time preliminary results give him a commanding lead with most of the ballots counted invited me to put in is in the lead with almost sixty five percent of the vote put in a and outgoing leader dmitry medvedev addressed tens of thousands of supporters who had gathered in central moscow today and it was visibly emotional but later said that the tears of that appeared on his cheeks were caused by the cold wind he also

said that the country will continue to modernize under his strong new mandate. there were very few we have won in an open and fair battle but this wasn't just an election of the president it was a test of political maturity and independence and we have shown and nobody can impose anything on us we have shown our people who are able to tell their desire for renewal from political provocations aimed at ruining the russian state and usurping power we have won with the support of the absolute majority of voters it's a clean victory we will work honestly and hard we will be successful and we call on everyone to unite over the interests of our people and our country yes i did i promised you we would win. i. and we have won thanks for the latest on what's happening we can cross to r.t.c.

what is laugh i've got thanks for being with us but as we saw just there mr putin has already claimed victory what is the situation currently at the moment. well the prime minister is already celebrating victory although it has to be said that the ballots are still being counted but we are approaching the point when all of the votes will be calculated at the moment it's just over ninety two percent of the ballots now that's according to the central election committee and putin is in a confident lead with around sixty four and a half percent of cast in support of his candidacy the prime minister has already met with some of his supporters in fact with tens of thousands of supporters who've gathered online years in a square which you can see behind me i know it's empty now but just a few hours the place was packed with people president meeting with video was there as well putin was saying some strong perhaps even emotional words one point tear

went down his cheek although we should explain for later that that was called simply by the windy weather the prime minister's also visited his campaign headquarters where he's talked with his supporters both in moscow and in some of russia's regions in video conversations. must clearly many of you know there were some insulin people that you couldn't back in their place those people who finished work is the working class but what you did together with your colleagues people who actually work in factories plants and the physical labor you intellectual level turn out to be much much higher than those people who consider themselves to be intellectuals. want to. put in their thinking his supporters and we also heard from his press secretary. here's what he had to say. actually it's

a very high result definitely thinking about a positive result we were hoping for. victoriana first but i would never think of such a higher was so it's even hard. with predicted for so. many shows once again actually proves that putin is a political figure number one in this country and there he's potential is here is yet to be able to pay he will be able to prove it through his. presidency. well you got in order to have a lecture you have to have more than one candidate so what can you tell us about the other candidates in the race. before our other candidates are taking part in this presidential race let's start with you ninety's uganda who is the head of the communist party right now he's managed to get just over seventeen percent. votes and he's already come out strongly criticizing legal action saying that it

was neither a fair or transparent but it has to be said that this is far from the first time that the ninety's are going to running for president in fact he's been taking part in presidential elections since the early ninety's and always managed to take only the second place now there's also. the liberal democrats a very eccentric politician a controversial figure often known for is quite aggressive tactics he's clearly staining just over six percent of votes unlike zyuganov as you can last years already actually can gradually to do a budget which in with these preliminary results quite impressive early results indeed and there is also meet all of who is the head of the fair russia party and the former speaker of the upper house of parliament he's here in the standing around three point seven percent. and one more figure there of course i'm talking

about the campaign of billionaire mikhail prokhorov there was much attention given to him with many analysts saying he's a new force in russian politics where does he stand. well i didn't really want to put that off in the same line with the other candidates because he really does stand down first of all he is a businessman a billion year in fact one of the richest one is in the world he's new in politics this is the first time profitably staking port in a presidential election and he's already managed to get over seven percent which is quite significant since it's more than say. a middle of who've been in politics in big politics for quite some time now approved of kind of his campaign was aimed at russia's middle class he presents himself as

a successful manager and he also was present at some of the opposition rallies although he himself said that he doesn't oppose. personally what he stands for a different type of policy so we'll see how the numbers concerning profit off develop since like they say we are approaching the point where all of the ballots will be calculated. now a lot of international attention has been given to this election all over the world it has been described as one of the most interesting elections russia has ever had what has been so different with this one compared to elections in the past. it was definitely one of the most colorful elections that russia has had it's happening at a very interesting time a spike in the social and political activity among the public probably the biggest since the in ninety's we've seen massive rallies both for and against the candidates scores of people have been taking to the streets after the recent

parliamentary election in december amid accusations of ballot fraud there's a huge social campaign underway for a transparent presidential election and a lot has been done in that sense many analysts have said that this is actually more of a reply of the authorities to the developing social and political situation in the country i'm talking about the over ninety thousand polling stations which have been in quips with web cameras they've been feeding a line through videos onto web portals of how the vote is conducted this or that polling stations so that internet users could watch that just online basically turning into observers there's also see through ballot boxes which have been introduced and an unprecedented number of real life observers at the polling stations that is estimated to be just hundreds of thousands of people including the

so-called unofficial opposition which is really been out of the political spotlight for just over a decade for sure now there are becoming quite active as well and involved in the in the entire process this election is also the most expensive one since just installing these cameras the web cameras cost the state budget over. three hundred million u.s. dollars so of course we will be continuing to monitor how the ballots are counted we're also expecting rallies in moscow on monday both in support and against the candidates but we will be extensively covering that as well all right thanks always interesting it's been a very interesting night we'll come back to you through the morning as more information becomes available archies you got for us there. has

been following the election from putin's campaign headquarters where dr nicholai from the world security institute talked about how support for putin has dropped since the last time he was president. he may have secured victory in the first round well the talk more about this i'm now joined by nico lies logan political analyst here at the peaches campaign headquarters the guy thank you so much for being with us so what do you make of this was all the around sixty three percent as it seemed to be lower than it was eight years ago but in a piece it was running well it is. because more than just the be to solve them for but i think it's quite fair for business the question is more difficult because we could list before much more competition in this campaign so i would say it is a big victory and it wasn't to sell them for he was to get quite foolish in the fight so i think it's a big victory for who can turn simmering. economic political situation because

there are shopping malls to some of the fish think it's it's very good results for any politician now in the election where everywhere so i think you should be very proud but you really think of that right now he had strong competitors that people were voting actually for him and not for the absence of al sinuses well i think more. people tried the fortunes of course obviously some people disappointed some people looking for some new faces and that's for a so-so no no for mikhail prokhorov is a result of that i think would be the best book you could do in the current situation and i think what he did was he worked very hard i would say first time of his political life he campaigned so. he could prepare the very first style of campaign particularly in the last few months and i think partly his victory is

there is a lot of is very strong something do you think that this protest movement some precedents that movement against letting a person basically is going to gain more momentum so as we see people come out in the street. first of all i think it's going to kill fifty. people expressing their opinion and i think it's very healthy for putin to seize a book everybody grievous he was some people going towards him to be. leader for i think it's healthy i think it's good if he'll be able to be a unifier no people i think the protests will go down if he will be revised or if he will start to do right. political spectrum even because i'm just now going i think real quickly because we're with. our correspondent sara firth was at what can be said is the most opulent election headquarters in this presidential race prokhorov isn't the only candidate with no previous experience of running for

president but some have been touting him as the next putting. they have been unhappy at this reaction from the press to the candidate himself to caprica because he's running as an independent candidate anyone in this presidential election say he doesn't have the posse behind him here the hey cool it is to give us their response that's been a surprise amongst many better than expected result little kids see that yes it will be do you know it's a journalist and hope they don't make out a corrupt journalist alexandra de blas thank you very much for joining us a lot of people say that the reason that the opposition haven't succeeded seiko is because it's a little divisions amongst the two things make up for the feature could be the man to the opposition be the police. i think his secret was in. the country's tired of putin generally there's going to be more and more people who will be. voting for you my problem my fear might

be their candidates for next election he's a guy who can actually both has to. experience the support of all of. mikhail prokhorov has only recently appeared on russia's political stage but according to his supporters this has actually been to his advantage we talked to the head of prokhorov media group and he says that the billionaire represents a younger more ambitious generation. he is new to symbolize the new rules for the new russia and some to be sure to be absolutely new and fresh in comparison to the soviet union and all the other candidates. and put in as well so. from the old stylish. summit elite. and. they're

not you know any more leaders of the younger generation michael crawford is sells me. he's ambitious he's cold and i think this is the new russia we all dream of well. on the on ten we we can slow very strong candidate michael call for a lot on the other hand be careful not to moderate the group it's not enough to moderate. and people really choose therefore community just to say no you can't. leave gold for anybody and they trust more than you to the thinking properly i think some of them were voting for zyuganov. despite prokhorov undeniable business credentials some foreign executives are also welcoming the prospect of blood to be put in his return earlier we talked to leading a businessman a quitter is scholar who told us putin's track record is very attractive to people

who seek to invest in the country. if i would have had a world to i would have voted for poor. i have been living here in russia twelve years and i think that all candidates were quite interesting and good but what would have made me to vote for portman was that first of all he has a good track record he has that belies the concrete his stop the church and war and he has started reforms in social and efficiency field corruption field which are not yet finished the other candidates have been. less credible in this way but the debate has been quite open before the election so i think nobody has been censored but i would have probably voted. two thirds of of russia for poor people and artie's washington correspondent and it as you can has been monitoring how the media abroad has been treating the elections she says much of the coverage

has suggested this is the beginning of the end of the to me or putin's political career despite his strong showing. before the elections even started the underlying message in the media here was that those were going to be unfair elections most of the coverage is focused on the discontent with the litter shared among many washes and here is a very telling headline the beginning of the end of putin but inside the weekly you read about the surge of the middle class under putin who having first become consumers have now become citizens points out the officer there's a great deal of critique here but then you come across a table which would make for a pretty good resume for any presidential candidate g.d.p. per person in russia more than doubled in the last twelve years private housing holds doubled the number of course tripled tourist travel abroad more than doubled the number of internet users increase the old almost five hundred times but again

despite the part of our russia's achievements under his rule journalists will focus on this content into society citing posters which lay around forty percent of russians don't trust prime minister putin and it makes you think what may be strange if everyone were happy with the government but interesting in the latest polls i've seen forty one percent of americans strongly disapprove of president obama and the word was with exactly strongly so yes this content among the russians . losing losing popularity those are the things that the media here are focusing on maybe vision vast protests again before the elections even started the underlying message here was that those were going to be on fair elections what's also interesting about the coverage everybody knows that putin is the most popular politician in russia but at the same time there seems to be some like of respect for the choice that russians have made but also one thing all media agree on when covering the opposition movements and all that is that russians begin to pay attention and show that they care there's another issue the media are looking at of

course and that is the u.s. russia relations with the new old. president putin they mentioned this chemistry that existed between presidents obama and medvedev and prime minister future president putin has kind of a hawk whose response to certain u.s. policies has been blunt sharp and at times unpleasant for washington and they raise questions about the reset it's going foreign journalist actually asked prime minister putin about the future and the results of the reset and what he said was basically that reset doesn't mean russia has to give up its national interest or not be able to express its use on some crucial international each shoes but despite the differences as the prime minister said the reset has worked and it's to dramatically advance economic ties between the countries in the first place and he's determined to continue that policy one of the architects of russia's foreign

policy is constantino coastal shows he says putin's international agenda will be to promote in the sand russia's national interest. i do not expect any big changes. i believe that most changes will take place in our domestic politics while before importance it will continue to keep its continuity for the simple reason that foreign policy russia is very much based on russian natural national interests and these national interests are definitely on changed we want to be a part of the global world we want to be equal british support for the process we are taking place in the global world and to be want to be treated fairly and on on a call grounds russia will continue to promote human rights to promote democracy to want to promote the same values reach are shared by most countries in the world the

international community and europe in particular have been for the most part critical of putin's decision to run for the presidency again and at the subsequent election campaign european correspondent cilia is following the mood towards the vote in brussels. well it's all been very consistent from the very start again that they've had a very critical view of the election campaign in russia as well as right now today ongoing counting of the votes to go really been seeing of reports on of the reported irregularities that's what makes it in the media here and here and especially because these calls for a free and fair elections is essentially the basis the basis of the basis of all of the criticism that it started and then leading into the protest movement we've had a lot of opposition voices opposition activists being featured a lot if the european press and today is no different complaining about those

regularities as well as some russian voices who say that actually there is a lack of choice in a russian elections and therefore they're making a protest move just voting for a party they may not believe it but it's just against united russia or against putin and of course there's a lot of analysis also coming in here from europe first of all on what is going to change especially now that there is a very very active opposition the biggest in about two decades now thus far as the european leaders are concerned they are taking a wait and see approach just after the march wanted to summit european leaders and several of them saying that they have to they want to wait and see what will happen after the russian elections and then reassess again to the positions especially on international issues maybe about syria and iran now on some commentators do point out that whatever the outcome of the russian elections or whatever the european leaders and the media me think of whoever becomes russia's next president the fact remains that russia is still

a very big and important partner for europe especially in trade and business and therefore more reaction definitely on and analysis on the impact of what happens on this important russia and europe relations. well steve levine from the new america foundation a public policy institute and think tank says that vladimir putin will maintain a hard line against outside threats he's going to maintain the image of an outside. tempting to have bad wishes for for russia but serve a purpose he serves a very constructive and productive purpose for putin meaning that he was able to say and do things. for credibility reasons and just because it didn't suit his personality. he would have been unable to say for example could you have a badge and. form into silicon valley and sitting down and having tea with

a bunch of technologists going on to washington and sitting down for a cheeseburger you know in a greasy spoon in washington. and i think this closed door. will retain reasonable relations with the united states with nato and with the rest of the world but that in public he's going to he's going to be he's going to maintain this friction he's going to be a troublesome character. lashing out at the west in public for example he will continue to do this as regards to the arab spring. the election has been held against a background of massive street rallies and russia's largest cities but as a member of the protest movement for a fair election we are also told r t the opposition demonstrators are in the

minority. result didn't come as a surprise and obviously most of the people share the same scene of the great russian classic but no revolution is worth of a. child's cheer and i hope there will not be blood on the streets but obviously we don't agree with this result and unfortunately we are in my minority but you have to consider every minority and this is the only way to democratic country three last months show headspace civilized society with a lot of needs can go somewhere and it can grow the only thing that last that this is a position lacked it was the one solid lead. and little earlier we heard from international action observation john berryman who praised the use of web cameras to monitor the vote and says that everything appears to have gone on without a hitch so i'm a group of with

a group of fifty because they can see system very good group from many different countries italy austria and finland. the members of parliament and we visited in the morning to probably stay since i would be off to probably stay friends over all i think our observations were unanimous there was no evidence of any. problems with the conduct of the elections they've been conducted in a very responsible and. pleasant fashion so far it seems the new technology has worked very well and i commend. the government for bringing this in because it may lay to rest a particular focus on the process all residential it from rather than the policies and their free. numberings up to date for now we will be continuing with our special coverage of the russian election here on our team with over ninety percent of the vote counted but you need

a push and looks set to become russia's next president coming back with a wrap up after the short break we'll go. to.

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