i just promised you we would win. we have won but the mayor putin declares victory in his bid to return to the kremlin for a third time as russia's president himself so show him winning some sixty four percent of the vote most of the ballots counted. before the monitors crazy elections is fair and free of the unprecedented measures are taken to ensure transparency creating hundreds of thousands of observers network where there's a polling stations across russia. but the opposition claims serious elektra

violations saying they'll be bringing people out on the streets once again to protest against the results. this is our presidential election live from moscow welcome to the program russia's prime minister vladimir putin has declared victory for a third term as russia's president addressed crowds of jubilant supporters in moscow after winning around sixty four percent of the vote with the most palates counted so artie's alexei airshows ski. looks set to have one of the sights of victory for the figures at the moment that. well as it stands with almost ninety nine percent of the votes haven't been counted so far we understand that. has about sixty three point eight percent of the votes with the closest rival to

him is the nineties you got of the communist party leader with a little more than seventeen percent also the russian tycoon mikhail prokhorov the newcomer to russian politics the first time presidential candidate stands at seven point eight percent and the other two candidates the liberal democratic party leader. at six point two and russia party leaders there gave it all of that three point eight so definitely such a large margin between putin and zyuganov certainly means that putin will win in the very first round of the presidential vote certainly something a little bit unexpected but nevertheless putin has been a clear favorite in this race it was only a matter of whether there would be a second round runoff or not now late in the night on sunday he could address a hundred thousand strong crowd in moskos city said right next to the kremlin walls speaking on how delighted he was with the victory and praising the support that

he is people that those who voted for him provided in this election let's listen to what the prime minister had to say. all right we have one in an unfair battle but this wasn't just an election of the president it was a test of political maturity in independence and we have shown and nobody can impose anything on us we have shown our people were able to tell the desire for renu from a political provocations and aimed at ruining the russian state and usurping power we have won with the support of the absolute majority of voters to clean victory we will work honestly and hard we will be successful and we call on everyone to unite in the interests of our people and our country yeah i did promise you we would win you. and we have won.

well certainly the votes are still being counted we are expecting a hundred percent all of the votes to be counted later on during the day maybe even tomorrow but still there is no doubt whatsoever now that there will be no second round on march twenty fifth and. then we'll be elected as russia's president for the third time in twelve years the russians in taking a wide interest in their countries our political life in a run up to this election but with tens of thousands taking part in rallies counted that said in a position protest what other signs of increased involvement in politics are we seeing. we have definitely seen a very different country in the last four months kerry since the parliamentary vote in december one thousand skip the streets on allegations that the vote the parliamentary vote was rigged definitely a lot has changed in the russian society and the people who are protesting both in the streets and all the line against the government against the current prime

minister vladimir putin urging him to step down certainly that made the authorities think they initiated a democratic dialogue between those in the streets and those of power and the election itself the one we have just witnessed was very much different to what we had used to seen before in russia since the collapse of the soviet union ever since the early one thousand nine hundred people were not only protesting and directing their anger at particular politicians but also taking more and more a role in the political life or be contrary namely the fact that we've been having with hundreds of thousands of observers during this election is something very much unique for russia and this is definitely a big change the only question which is warring now which is really interesting to see how it will unfold is whether the opposition will protest which will try to contest the results of this election because as we understand it the opposition is planning and mass rally today at seven pm moscow time in the central moscow will

see how it unfolds. and the russian election authorities say well no effort has been spared to make this election the most transparent today how well have those preparations worked out do you think. well definitely we are yet to learn whether this election indeed turns out to be the most transparent in russia but we can definitely say that it has been the most expensive election campaign election process we've had so far since the collapse of the u.s.s.r. because it is installing the web cameras along at polling stations across the country to a cost around a billion us dollars this was something certainly initiated by the prime minister after the string of mass protests in russia demanding fair and transparent elections also as i've mentioned hundreds of thousands of observers were there at the polling stations trying to mourn its or the election process as well as certainly seven hundred international observers who were also there to make sure everything ran smoothly and in a fair way certainly there have been some irregularities reported mostly by the

independent observers but i believe my colleague jake grieves will tell you more about those irregularities later on in our bulletin states and for that report meanwhile we are waiting four hundred percent of those to be counted and will certainly updating our viewers every hour as soon as we get new information ok for now correspondent alessio thank you for that. well that he may contain spokesperson told r.t. that his campaign team had not been expecting. victory. it's a very high result. we were thinking about positive result we were hoping for a definite victory in a first but we would never think of. any shows once again actually proved. legal fees were number one and beans country and there his potential is here is yet to be told to and he will be able to prove it through his. presence of our

public is growing very fast. this grow grows fast the political system its public society demands more proactive involvement in political and sometimes points of view that do not coincide with governmental position so. to speak against him it's unthinkable part of democracy unthinkable part of europe crueler is. so it's quite normal we see protests in all the countries of the world. but i stay with r.t. for more of our special presidential election coverage or election a studio will start broadcasting at three pm g.m.t. we'll be bringing you latest results of a variety of opinions across the political spectrum.

but unprecedented measures were taken by the authorities for maximum transparency an election a massive network of web cameras across russia and dozens of observers have been monitoring the voting let's get more on this from our teams jacob riis joins us now jacob there's been a record number of observers international and independent how did they assess the process. well short of international service saving quite satisfied and happy. all the election they say that there's no real irregularities no cause is there this is something that was before the celebrations public to fools it's really the. holiday tree elections. they said and the operators used during these elections the first

a true election is just yesterday take you to technology and around russia over a thousand polling stations it. has this is something they thought could be used by other countries around the world we hear this from all of those observers. a group of with a group of fifteen. systems are a good group from the many different countries italy austria and finland. and members of parliament and we visited in the morning to polling stations and we are to call these stations. i think our observations were. unanimous there was no evidence of any. problems with the conduct of the elections i think that in a very responsible way and. present fashion so far it seems the new technology has

worked very well and i commend. the government for bringing this name because it may lay to rest a particular focus on the process of the presidential election rather than the policies of the. central asian commissioner said that over eighty five. fishley reports i go to be investigated. in the russian republic of dagestan in the north caucuses there are videos be uploaded on the internet which is to show ballot stuffing. taken place since the central asian commission have reacted the same it's the voting take place in that conversation has to be the old white house the head so. taken most of the reaction been from the opposition to the measures put in place to enable a fair and transparent election. but really that's in direct contrast what we've heard from some of the international observers the mystical so as to keep those affiliated with the opposition movement slightly less happy say the better stuff it

did take place case electoral fraud also how so voting where people assemble on passengers to meet your polling station of votes and multiple amounts of times the central issue commission has refuted this claim ready say mere fact bus loads of fact you workers were taken to individual polling stations to be given the chance to voice independent candidates every candidate has given observers to these elections priss me feel for straw man of the place in the presidential elections he was given about twenty thousand he can amass twenty thousand they reported four thousand lation is taking place and said they would see this in a court of law an independent body also reports three thousand far away she is taking place on the cheek concerns here being the promise of down to who she sees are really exceeded expectations in these results and given all that then are we

likely to see protests in the coming days. oh yes we are in fact we should see what places today you know there have been demonstrations characterizing the build up to this presidential campaign and the other one expected to take place just bought by me a particular square here. russian of discontent this piece says before oh i'm intrigued elections allegations public hasn't really lost momentum as a movement since as we stressed so this was organized pete. all day for everything transpired all election day really preempting what they consider. it terms of allegations of fraud we have throughout this process seen other sides of the story goes is a poor prime minister. and in particular what he stands for. is the ability to target finances around russia and people having wealth of money in their pockets

well this is a very straight in rallied around roosevelt throughout the course of the presidential campaign. but is square yesterday. just about hundreds of people showing their support for the prime minister after you guys used to be crowned president of the basis of those exit polls if they say see now the right taking place they are actually both of the prime minister three sets of royal this was called the opposition. ok thank you for now jacob riis live from us. there's a whole section dedicated to russia's election on our web site r.t. dot com we've got the most informative analysis on the poll for the country's top top find out how most russians would like to see change come in slowly gradually or more revolutionary also lots of qualities must an ideal president to possess sincerity. with experience and politics find out.

well that using candidates think about the outcome of the election go live now to lindsay france and see the runner up tonight is you've got enough didn't take the last well did he know. no he absolutely did not now ending up with nearly twenty percent of the vote he still says the feel actions were unjust and not transparent now he also is the only candidate to refuse so far to formally acknowledge those results claim he did the state stole up to fifteen percent of the vote and he he's just going to keep what will hit the streets with protesters to

make this facts known to the wider public. on the election as brutal newcomer to the top of this korean let me tell procure of what he said there today and some of been around for a while does he still have big plans and visions for the future that. yes he does you know he ran away with over seven percent up to vote and many analysts say that this is just russian politics is very batty this head of atmosphere in a telephone conversation in fact just after the results were announced hussein himself told the crowd that the shows were very very decent doctor himself now why this is not as you said the last we'll hear about call for office politically he does plan to establish their own political party and have plans to decide in the future whether or not he will run for president now what is so remarkable to many people is that in such a short time in such a short campaign period that he actually makes such a decent showing in the polls no arts he spoke with one of his representatives just

a few hours ago to get their take on that. he actually has. russian nationalists has been doing with korea for twenty years and mr jerry knows that's a very positive sign we just thought it had a very short campaign and where we started we told russians that we want to be in the russian politics for coming if you keep trying to suggest last thing that bush has become more and more sinking motion to go to one or another candidate so they think that probably provide. the kind of man has been managing his business for for a while and a great wealth treasure bill and dollar has been growing his capital his wealth that's what the country needs or wants big numbers of g.d.p. people want to have biggest seller is so he's the right guy to sure can manage this process. so lindsey what plans do the two have for today.

well it's no doubt in a very very long night watch no results. for his part mikhail prokhorov says that he does possibly plan to attend some opposition rallies taking place in. the square here in moscow for his part get out as you can off the. lebanese to give more details on what he thinks their election process. really easy for us in moscow thank you. both the voting it may be over in russia as a presidential election but there's another vote you can take part in our poll today we're asking you what the biggest challenge for us is next president will be other results so far most of you forty percent believe fending off nato encroachment biggest challenge. getting rid of corruption should be the top

priority seventeen percent say the main task will be to modernize the country's economy politics nine percent think that keeping the russian economy taking a world economic problems and a minority view so far seven percent voted. against party so that's what you think should be the top russian presence in trade. but the election has been closely watched across the world a washington correspondent. has been monitoring u.s. media coverage and says that the spotlight russia's advances since this came to power is still very negative. 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 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 polls the gold 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 the russians achievements under his rule journalists will focus on discontent in the society citing pollsters which they around forty percent of russians don't trust prime minister putin then he makes you think wouldn't it 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 lottery put in losing losing popularity those are the things that the media here are focusing on maybe vision vast protests 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 life 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 told 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 mention this chemistry that existed between presidents obama and medvedev. prime minister future president putin has kind of a hawk whose response to certain u.s.

policies has been blocked 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 views on some crucial international each issues but despite the differences as the private has to say the reset has worked and it sets to dramatically advanced economic ties between the countries in the first place and he's determined to continue that policy and it's a chicken that the video has been hugely different to europe to that in the u.s. future in criticism of person's decision to run for the presidency again and these election campaigns are europe correspondent tests are syria has been the for whom reaction to the votes in brussels. 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 a reports on of the reported irregularities that's what makes it even media here in europe especially because these calls for 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 of voices opposition activists feature being featured a lot in the european press and today is no different than 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 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 of what is going to change especially now that there is a very more viable 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. 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 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 elections or whatever the european leaders and immediately 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 alice is on the impact of what happens on these this important russia and europe relations consultant and dorothy age and so the world thinks that the spotlight on favorable western media coverage of international benefits from putin's return to russia. they're full of this news is

bad for the united states bad for the united kingdom bad for israel even the b.b.c. c.n.n. fox news really the italian right of the spanish t.v. bloomberg gave you that's just one piece of information together with an explosion in brazzaville and a train crash in poland definitely it's bad news for them however this is very good for the world because now more than ever the drive for global hager money that we see on the part of the united states the united kingdom the european union some countries in the european union and israel russia is the key country together with china but the key country to act as of but first as a break and even as a war against these global war of colonial drive that we see major western powers i think russia will continue advantage to the place the great probably deserves it were in the world scene which is to act as a world power which it always has been accepted was confused for

a while of the ninety million east and secondly there has to be a balance that will help our lives global power so that as i say the world is not overrun as we are seeing i don't see five united states britain and the european union because that sounds rather childish but i insist by the global power elite embedded inside and they have to be stopped. for discussion about the results of a russia is a presidential election continues until you show spotlight scripturally. it's probably true that the the protest movement likely run 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 uncompromising towards the authorities than anyone who's standing in the election.

then i think that we could have actually seen a much more sort of close friends thing. that's just one of the canyons that voiced in spotlight you can watch the program in full in just a few minutes time but first a reminder of the headlines today that's coming up shortly.

loses. it's just simply it's. just so. i'm sure all of our got a story are out about this crazy lady with a convertible that i'll cut for if there were times to bash of it i was on death

row for nineteen years right there. he says you know life punishment because we might have to save the lives. society has condemned these people as less than human it is necessary to punish crime everything we do to punish crime is unpleasant. but it needs to be done nobody wants to be. link to the nazis but the historical and to see of the american death penalty today in large part from the nazis and the saddest part is the state of texas gets their way and they execute him and i won't be allowed to touch him until after he's dead he's my only son at any time i leave the house in my horn and he keeps telling me they can't hear me in there because it's all cinder blocks and concrete but i've still haunt every time i go.