so there you are watching our teaser russian the presidential election coverage live from moscow prime minister vladimir putin declares victory in his bid to return to the kremlin for a third time as russia's president almost all the ballots counted results so far show him winning sixty four percent of the vote. for in monitors precis the actions as fair and free of the unprecedented measures are taken to ensure transparency about seven network of web cameras were installed at polling stations across russia

thousands of observers monitoring the voting. the opposition claims serious electoral violations saying they'll be bringing people out onto the streets once again to protest against the results that's a visit to an independent observer some started irregularities such as people turning up to vote at different polling stations several times. but in depth look at the presidential election results and the efforts of the opposition that's in our interview show spotlight next here r.t. . world. science technology innovation all these developments from around russia we've got the future covered.

hello again to welcome troops across the into the shallow part i'll bring our friends today we're talking about the presidential election in the show so this is it the voting is over and just moments ago we heard the latest alie fullam early results this election was a very special it's the first time after a constitutional reform that russians elected a president for six years instead of the model of or is being the most expensive but the most transparent voting as anyone can watch it online so droll that very special election become a milestone in russian political list which we'll discuss it now live with the editor in chief of the moscow news tim wall and the head of the general political science department at the high school of economics yeah but a call for. the. russians of cast their vote doesn't next president

election communities across the country in the broad and on busy counting the ballots and processing the data russia's six presidential election is also the first in which a president is elected for six years instead of for the final candidates were prime minister vladimir putin believe in anything from her and also this really does of the political parties represented in the duma communist unite isn't gonna lead iraq the liberal democratic party why did you not speak and soon gave you enough ok russia on to the election was preceded by two complaining and the biggest program and the government's rallies the country has seen since the time of young what provoked a heated political debate with a result of the sometimes parliamentary vote we trundled a majority of seats in the ruling united russia. r.t. leading into friday 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 dollars allowed anyone anywhere in the world to log on to our website she went online broadcast of russians casting their ballots. hello gentlemen tim lee and you thank you very much for joining us on the show well first of all kill him and the the the found. the public opinion poll company had published preliminary results just a couple of days before the for the actual election and 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 is how the the public opinion polls over there has been predicted that the voting will be well how accurate is that how how how good were well where they have the stand well will you. trust this year i. saw because this practice of. curing the poles of examples it's not the first time. so. very very well equipped. of a lot of them not much more from from the western experience although personally i trust this that this figures. 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 freshly over the last like like one or two weeks before the election that he really he really. sort of a breakthrough in the polls in the popularity so good but he didn't seem for me you

don't seem to do anything special so do you believe this is so it and why is that happened. but i think it's probably true that the the protest movement slightly bent 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 or 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 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 putin come 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 there were even 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 are coming along one day or something like that here all of those people were told come along for muslim it's something like this and it doesn't the problem for putin is that this might fly in russia but to the rest of the world it doesn't look quite right it doesn't look quite like a free and fair election then you should have an impression that put in wasn't actually afraid of competition that the only thing that he was afraid the media still is afraid of the damage is that is that maybe not everybody will trust these elections to be legit everybody doing his best to make them legit is indigenous they agree. the main intrigue of the selection is not about who will win it was clear and you clear it is yes yes putting on the second round would have been fair

. but i think i think we had even had somebody who may really oppose putin but nobody in the nobody really did oppose him i think to be honest i think that the real probable level of support for putin is somewhere around forty five to fifty percent back to you here but you know he didn't have a rival. challenge him seriously. and now the. second place or for the same leader of companies you know if you go on our feet twenty years. people didn't buy it therefore again the result was predictable but you are right the main issue of. election is the legitimacy and how to legitimize this is the big concern because you know this is open war and the global war within russia we have some opposition groups who would definitely. it wasn't free and fair

international community. is here or why it attentively of these people therefore it's a big concern now the the the only fresh face that we saw during this russia were with me profit off the billionaire. but he said i'm not in the position to put in i'm like an alternative i mean we have the same platform we want the same thing and i lately have bodies but but i'm just for those who are trying to put in there they can vote for me but isn't this a pretty strange there's a platform for for a presidential campaign i think it's not i just think it's a little bit too much control yeah i mean you know we have someone in between you have the skinny who's been a fixture on the russian political scene for you know twenty years like the rest of them got twenty years and he's not really a serious kind of person 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 he made a good bit of the american are presenting the copies of for the least of the signatures of four of his supporters and he while out of the war well you see i don't know why. they give me a good example i mean you can make the same kind of mistake when you wait when you when you say we don't know for v.z. and you don't get it these for no reason just you made a slight mistake you either leave the wrong picture i mean you you know he you put it there and that is stuff of you. they have a. very nice lawyer. and now i wonder why this mistake so it's to me it's very strange well you know you know. you asked about the proper of as a real rival of putin but your ideological believe borth

a center right candidate saw there for a little profit of his soul while on pushing this is this is maybe why you said i'm not i know turning to have but not opposition this is yet let's see the latest results we have heard them from from the central central election committee were right and ten minutes ago in the news but here they are what we have at this minute is that we having sixty two percent for putin seventeen four of 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 governor he only just learning what i think at the something that probably our viewers have to maybe bear in mind here which is i think a lot of the people who voted for any of the candidate puton. 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 if they found anything counted so i deal you know like we said i think that

the person who probably gained 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 where that might just stay within the law and magistrate 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 politics are well i'm in that position and i actually i prefer to hear your opinion do you do you will i i'll ask will you do you believe that an internet creation like alex a no one is who's against he's the first he's against he's always he doesn't trust these against then well well well isn't that like one hundred percent hundred percent computer computer virtual like person. but on like he is popular or like do you think that he made make a can there for the next political political action like four years in the various

and five year i believe you think he has a good chances to become a politician the real police use and declaring not just that he is against but his positive program. he has a million million per unit is. to participate in municipal elections in resident elections maybe viewers know that it's going to be free elections. of the governors so it's a good opportunity for him to test himself as a politician pretty quick questions a question do you think the results will be changing as as we'll hear as we hear the difference count from from east to west of the country i hope for proper of. the third if you want i think that the interesting thing is will the bill of results challenge them up super will there be any kind of independent inquiry they are already seeing starting to be challenged challenged talk about it all to bridge

or through i know we're talking to journalists a wall and a political analyst clearly needs spotlight will be back shortly after we take a break so don't go away stay where you want. me to. get i'll sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like sleep you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm charging bloggers a big. culture

is that so much as i was about the feeling that i think i'm going to give it really be over until decision two thousand well russians have gone to the polls and chosen a new president always has campaign changed politics in russia which is it's a. welcome back to spotlight i'm al green often just a reminder that my guest today here in studio is tim wall chief of the moscow news . general political thouse the portman in the high school of economics and we also have a special of you if you are russian reporter in the central election committee you can see with 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 but definitely do well 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 unite is uganda who is seventeen point six percent of the vote but diminish it in the risky 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 the vote it's definitely have be true 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 game you're on the streets his second election which is trying to get the country stop drop and he's getting only three point seven percent of the vote now with so many observers participating in this year's election we understand it will take longer for those observers to put signatures and final protocols to seal official results and the 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. three hundred million dollars have been spent on installing web cameras very expensive says if you work across the country also there were transparent ballot boxes installed at all polling stations and a record number of observers 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 nationwide 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 of service 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 and of course the main intrigue in the around these surrounding this election is whether they'll be a second round now if the the the one which now talks the least reported current prime minister in the end when all the 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 of the state duma elections as there are so many times zones and almost ninety eight thousand polling stations across the country will definitely take time to analyze and to count all the votes to possess all the information so we expect the

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

irregularities do you think that something will happen close to what we saw after they leave this and move actions you know that. size this is the game is not an idiot because you know we know the winner but the responsibility of all participants of this presidential paul is quite obvious. for candidates i believe they should recognize the results because it's a really transparent free and fair elections maybe through us and the history of very very little history or democracy microsleep in russia otherwise they would be responsible for any possible unrest which could happen someone wanting to more night well let's hear from one of the observers are the election we do have we do have an observer from here quoted in the book 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 them and i grew disintegrated winterreise not a precinct but the second group of farm here we can track them down and the police detained them and to diminish it was. i'm sorry to say it's impossible to find out who the rooted for. this was the guy who controlled the elections under part of the communists so tim do you do you believe that we'll hear a lot more of such accusations of regularity. while unfortunate thing that we will i mean i've been watching the process all or through the day today and busy looking at media reports 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 accusations it's nothing proving that 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 and 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 maybe only half so what we do know one thing is that candy from british elections through their. own entry probably they mean i tend to agree with you but i think i do think it's a phrase we did have it's this way i don't think it's quite so difficult to register a political party you know this is here that's now is going to be you very very easy the next couple of months you're through 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 this into question if the people who supported putin this time because he promised to

protect their jobs and protect their pensions and their salaries if that somehow falls apart because of the world economic crisis then the then the government has a problem. what do you think will the reaction will there are irregularities at any elections all around the world will depend on the scale of is russia and also the differences in reaction of the government of the winner do you think the reaction of the winner this time will be the it will be similar to the reaction of december when there have been practically no reaction than i expected different and different yes i mean all of those who are or who will be caught and will be proven that they. have broken the law and will be coming to some procedural irregularities. so. they will be brought to account or responsible or even punished according to the law this will prove the

government really go after us or it is really interesting i mean the firms for your elections well we have two other observers that we have. met in this reporter who actually met in the city of two men and here's another opinion about how the elections when down 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 whole process of who who says that there was fraud but we hear one of his spokespeople say that at this particular polling station everything was right we have another one we have another representative of that include him also in the two men in the two men region. he actually had he actually also said we have recorded also

a couple of hours ago he actually said that everything went smoothly and there were there were no irregularities and this particular procession so. the thing is the main question is that do we actually expect that whatever irregularities there may have been that they will actually influence the final results or not. to make 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 registrants country 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 the authorities didn't just allow a sort of a more level playing field but have you know there are there's 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. number one was you got it and put it was number two number three was present on their very very average a one hour fifty three hours and put in the one tower we have one unfortunate first this hour the figure is it's going to either of. you know i what 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 if you're gonna. listen i was very. well actually actual german 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 and every major major square

there is going to be meetings that we're going to be fun or is it going to be just well. i don't know so saying goodbye to me going to find a hole to put on i mean i think there is a there is an inherent danger in the situation because you've got a hard core of the opposition supporters now who will i think you know feel that they pinched. heated and feel that this sort of come to the end of the road to being able to protest peacefully and i hope that it doesn't develop into a confrontation with the security forces thank you taylor thank you very much of course you will run out of time but we'll see more results of the under the election crowd here of russia in the russia today in a matter of minutes that's it for the hour from all of us here scoff why it will be back until then feel like heat and take it.