on the good. video. oxys my old goals. are as it speeds in the palm of your. question. this is our g.'s presidential election coverage live from moscow with me sean thomas prime minister vladimir putin looks set to take russia's top job for a third time preliminary results giving him a commanding lead with most of the ballots counted of vladimir putin is in the lead with almost sixty five percent of the vote putin and outgoing leader dimitri medvedev addressed tens of thousands of supporters who had gathered in central moscow which himself has already announced his victory and what he has called a free and fair election he also promised the country would continue to modernize

under his strong new mandate. right you know we have one in an open and fair battle but this wasn't just an election of the president it was a test of political maturity in independents and we have shown that you know nobody can impose anything on us we have shown our people are able to tell the 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 with a clean victory we will work honestly and hard it will be successful and we call on every once and unite over the interests of our people and our country yeah i did i promised you we would win here i. only have one. offer the latest on what's happening we can cross live parties you've got a piece going off thank you i know it's been

a long night and we appreciate you being out there for us as we saw just there mr putin has already claimed victory what is the situation right now at the moment. well at the moment over ninety seven percent of ballots have been counted as according to the central election commission and the preliminary results or that while your reporting managed to get around sixty four percent of votes which means this election is most likely to end in the first round as the winner needs to secure a fifty percent plus one for the prime minister has already met with some of his supporters in fact tens of thousands of them gathered on monday actually a square in central moscow you can see behind me there right now i don't seventy now but just a few hours ago it was packed with thousands of people the president. was also there. and also visited his campaign headquarters and spoke with some of his supporters both in moscow and in some of the regions in

a video conversation. who crossed the bus they really let me ask you do you know there were some insolent people but you put them back in their place these people who are in need work is the working class but what you do together with your colleagues people who actually work of factories plants physical labor your intellectual level turn out to be much much higher and they speak you who consider themselves to be only select tools actually can be pretty. why you are pushing for change in his supporters there are lots of heard from his press secretary dmitri b. school fears what he had to say. actually it's a very high result definitely rouer thinking about it but positive result we were hoping for a victory in the first round but we would never think about such a high risk so it's even harder than would predicted for us and it shows once again actually proves that putin is

a police go figure number one and been strong for him and a he's potential is yet is yet to be opened totally and he will be able to prove it through his. presidency. where you can't have an election with just a bloody mirror putin what can you tell us about the other candidates in the race. well four other candidates are taking part in this election let me start with you ninety's you got the head of the communist party it's not the first time that he's running for russia's top job in fact he's been taking part in the presidential election since the ninety's but always managed to come second and in fact this time he's already criticized the poll saying that it was neither fair or transparent and the same is being said by some members of the unofficial opposition of war now planning to hold rallies on monday. seventeen around seventeen percent so you doesn't agree with that there's also.

the head of the liberal democrats party he's sort of the official opposition very eccentric controversial politician known for his aggressive style sometimes he's got around six point two percent at the moment but. unlike you gone up. over he congratulated. these preliminary results there's also said the middle of the head will be fair russia party and the former speaker of the upper house of parliament he's standing at around three point eight percent and there's also. stands out from the rest of the candidates first of all he's new to politics especially big politics he's a businessman a very successful indeed one of the richest people in the world and according to the preliminary results he's already got around seven and

a half percent and actually there are reports that profit of me come second in moscow and in st petersburg which is quite significant since like i said he's new to politics compared to the other candidates who've been in politics for quite some time now. well you are all over the world this has been described as one of the most interesting elections russia has ever had in fact running up to it it's been quite interesting to watch what has been so different with this election compared to ones in the past. this election is being held at a very interesting time us point in social and political activity among the public probably the biggest since the early ninety's we've seen massive rallies both for and against the candidates scores of people have been taking to the streets after. election in december i mean accusations of ballot fraud this led to a massive social campaign for a transparent presidential election and

a lot has been done in that sense in fact this is the most expensive election in russia's history over ninety thousand polling stations have been equipped with web cameras they've been feeding videos onto web portals from polling stations as the vote went on so that internet users could watch online how all of that proceeded. boxes have been introduced as well this year and also an unprecedented number of observers hundreds of thousands of people have been monitoring the vote at polling stations including representatives of the unofficial opposition in fact they are planning to organize rallies on monday we'll be covering that extensively as well and also we've got news that some rallies in support of the prime minister are already being held in russia's far east where it's already morning and the

beginning of the new day. all right are cheesy going to we appreciate you staying on top of things we know it's been a long night thanks for staying keeping us up to date and we know we're going to stay with this information as it keeps coming at you now dmitri medvedev has been following the election from putin's campaign headquarters where dr nikolai zlobin 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 a lot of talk more about this i'm now joined by nikolai's logan political analyst here at the beaches campaign headquarters the guy thank you so much for being with us so what do you make of this was all the ground sixty three percent i was it seemed to be lower than it was eight years ago but you know who was running well as a whole because more than just the i just how far but i think it's quite fair for this discussion is more difficult because it would have because the list before wes

work i'm pretty sure in this campaign so i would say it is a big or a victory it was a solvent for even if you got quite sure list for the price so i think it's a big victory for putting considering their. economic political situation because of their shopping mall because i'm going to subversion i think it's it's very good result for any politician now who in the election were everywhere so i think you should be very proud of those who you really think of that right now he had strong competitors that people were coaching actually for him and not for the absence of out sinuses so i think for. people trying to forge it of course obviously some people disappointed some people looking for some new faces and that's for a so-so moment of mikhail prokhorov is a result of that i think. did the best book you could do in the current situation and i think what he did he worked very hard i would say first time of his political

life he campaigned so far he put together very first style of campaign particularly last for months and i think partly his victory is a result of his very strong campaign do you think that this protest movement some precedents that movement against letting it loose and basically it is going to gain more momentum as we see people come out in the street. first of all i think it's very healthy. people expressing their opinion and i think it's very healthy for him to seize it got everybody agree to see what some people don't want him to be a leader for action i think it's healthy i think it's good if he will be able to be unifying. people i think the protests will go down if he will be divided there if he will start with the right. political spectrum even because i'm just

now going to think real quick because we're. our correspondent sarah ferguson was at the most opulent election headquarters in this presidential race we held profit off is the only candidate with no previous experience of running for president but some have been touting him as the next puton. we haven't had a reaction from the press. because he's running as an independent candidate anyone in this presidential election say he doesn't have the posse behind him here at the hague cool it is to give us their response has been a surprise amongst many better than expected result we didn't have his reaction at the etihad if journalists they don't have proper of. thank you very much for doing a lot of people say that the reason that the opposition haven't they did say four is because of the divisions among the two things makeup of the beach it could be

the man to the opposition and be the police. i think he's missing presumed. the country is tired of putin generally there's going to be more and more people who will be. voting for you my problems my fear might be their candidates for next election because these guys can actually both has. experience with this important mall it. 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 the billionaire represents a younger more ambitious generation. he is the symbol is the new the new russia is some vision to be absolutely new and fresh in comparison to the

soviet union. all other candidates. and put in as well so they are from old stylish solid elite and. then all you know anymore leaders of the younger generation michael crawford is me . he's ambitious is cold and i think this is the new russia we all dream of walk. on their own can we we can see very strong candidate michael call for blood on the other hand we have not democratic groups not enough to make reference and people really choose their fortunately just to say no for them to. leave all for anybody at the frost more than usual on the including crossroads i think some of them were voting for zyuganov for. despite her as undeniable

business credentials some foreign executives are also welcoming the prospect of putin's return earlier we talked to leading businessmen peter is scola 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 class 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 stabilized the country he stopped the church of 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 i believe date has been quite open before the election so i think nobody

has been censored but i would have probably about. two thirds of of russia for poor people or does washington correspondent damage again has been monitoring how the media abroad has been treating be elections she says much of the coverage has suggested this is the beginning of the end of blood in europe put into a 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 ship among navy 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 awesome or 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 the gold number of course tripled tourist travel abroad more than doubled the number of internet users increased almost five hundred times but again despite the part of our russia's achievements under his rule journalist still focus on discontent in the society citing pollsters which lay around forty percent of russians don't trust prime minister putin then 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 exact 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 mass protests again before the elections even started the underlying message here was that those were going to be on fair elections was 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 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 core so international easy issue but despite

the differences as the prime minister said the reset has worked and if that's true dramatically advanced economic ties between the countries in the first place and he's determined to continue that policy i was archies down it's as you can reporting for us there from washington now one of the architects of russia's foreign policy is constantino of he says putin's international agenda will be to promote and defend russia's national interests i do not expect any deep changes. i believe that most changes will take place in the midst of olympics while the foreign policy will continue to keep peace continuity for the simple reason that foreign policy she's very much beast on russian. 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 participants will be

a process we are taking place in the global world and we want to be treated fairly and. on the equal grounds russia will continue to promote human rights to promote democracy to want to promote the same values reach our spirit by most countries in the world. steve levine from the new america foundation a public policy institute and think tank says that love you need to put in will maintain a hard line against outside threats he's going to maintain the image of an outside in circle moment think i have bad wishes for russia but it served a purpose he served a very constructive and productive purpose for putin meaning that he was able to say and do things that putin for credibility reasons and just because it didn't

suit his personality. that he would have been unable to say for example could you have a pageant. form in the 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 been increasing scrutiny in washington. i think you know behind closed doors and 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 international community and in europe particularly have been for the most part

critical of cordons decision to run for the presidency again and of the subsequent election campaign our europe correspondent our cilia is following the mood towards the voting process. well it's all been very consistent from the very start again they've had a very a critical view of the election campaign in russia as well as right now today ongoing counting of the votes who've already been seeing of reports on of the reported irregularities that's what makes it in the media here in europe especially because these calls for a free and fair elections is sensually 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 to voices opposition activists being featured a lot in the european press there today is no different been complaining about those who greg larrys 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 by 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 let's far as the european leaders are concerned they are taking a wait and see approach just after the march wanted to summit. leaders and several of them saying that they have to do we want to wait and see what will happen after the russian elections and reassess again of the positions especially on international issues maybe about syria and iran now some commentators do point out that whatever the outcome of the russian alexis or whatever the european leaders and the media any think of whoever becomes russia's next president the fact remains that russia is still a very big important partner for europe especially in trading business and therefore more reaction definitely on and analysis on of the impact of what happens

on these russian and europe relations. reporting for us there in the u.s. based anti-war activist barr says it's the courage leadership's foreign policy that has voters. people have the perspective that not good is prudent and so the way russia handled the syrian crisis thus far as opposed to the more tepid role that it played in the libyan crisis i think it's reflected in the vote both with putin scoring about five percent more than even the official polls thought he would have but looking particularly as you're in no skis numbers i think that the decline in his numbers didn't only go to procure off what but i think went to united russia because of the stand that's been taken in international affairs generally sending the fleet to tartus in syria the vetoes at the security council

the declaration that if the united states deploys the missile quote unquote the fences them that it will be met aggressively these things i think you know a strong independent foreign policy at least the trappings of that have drawn support from the people of russia and i think to be expansive for example national was like sure no escape the election has been held against a background of massive street rallies in russia's largest cities but as a member of the protest movement for a fair election it me high cost we have told our team the opposition demonstrators are in the minority. result didn't come as a surprise and obviously most of the people share the same saying of the great russian classic but no revolution is worth of a. chance cheer 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 we to democratic country three last months show that is civilised society with the lords of needs can go somewhere and it can grow the only thing that lacks that is a position that was there not one solid leader. a little earlier we heard from international election observer john berryman who praised of the use of web cameras to monitor the vote and says everything appears to have gone on without a hitch. a group of with a group of fifteen homes and there's a concert system or a good group from many different countries italy austria finland. and members of parliament and we visited in the morning to polling stations had to be off mood to call the state things over what i think our observations were unanimous

there was no evidence of any. problems with the conduct of the elections i think that's you know very responsible and. present fashion so far it seems three new technology has worked very well and i commend the government for bringing this thing because it may lay to rest a particular focus on the process of residential election rather than the policies and their free world. that brings you up to date for now will be continuing with our special coverage of the russian presidential election right here on r.t. with over ninety seven percent of the vote counted. and said to become russia's next president i'll be back with a wrap up after this short break. we'll

. its technology innovation called these developments from the round russia we've got the future covered.

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