don't succumb. and he promised he would win. but we have. proven will return to the kremlin for a third time as russia's president official results show he's won nearly sixty four percent of the vote. for him monitors appraisal elections as free and fair after unprecedented steps were taken to ensure transparency including hundreds of thousands of observers and a network of webcams at polling stations across russia. but the opposition claims serious electoral violations saying they'll be bringing people out to the streets once again to protest against the results.

two pm in moscow good to have you with us here on r t it's official vladimir putin has won the presidential race to become russia's leader for a third term official results have given him almost sixty four percent of the vote that's turnout artie's alexei or shoves joining us live from out in moscow good to have you with us again so who has finished well ahead of his opponents show us the figures. it is matt it is official absolutely we have the new president elect like even if it has managed to gone almost forty sixty four sixty percent of the vote that is sixty three point six that is forty five million people voting for the current prime minister for him to be russia's next president he's the main rival the closest person in terms of percentage to putin is denied he's got of the leader

of the communist party with seventeen point two percent as twelve million voters choosing him to be the russia's russia's next president. of the russian tycoon the newcomer to the political stage has seven point eight percent that is around five million people go to him the liberal democratic leader also a prominent complainer in russia and he said only one complaint ever since the collapse of the soviet union at six point two percent with four million voters that is and last but not least again on the leader of the just russia party of the head of the upper house of the russian parliament at eight point three point eight percent excuse me that is two point seven million people voting in his favor now certainly it's clear to everyone now that will become russia's president for a third time in twelve years and last night he spoke to a crowd of his supporters of more than one hundred thousand people meters from where i'm standing here in front of the kremlin and. certainly was very emotional

about the fact that he has managed to get this victory in the first round of voting . brazing the people who supported him and expressing his delight over the victory which he has managed to achieve. i refuse 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 in independence and we have shown the nobody can impose anything on us we have shown our people who are able to tell the desire for renu 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 so united in the interests of our people and our country yeah i did promise you we would win. and we have won.

well more than sixty three percent may have surprised somebody but still has a victory is no surprise to anyone in general because he had been a front runner in this presidential race for a very long run and now of course we are waiting for that one hundred percent of the votes to be counted but it's purely a formality we can now say for sure that russia has its president. elects a russian election authorities say no effort was spared to make this our action the most transparent today would we say that now that those preparations a war worked. well off the tens of thousands of people hit the streets all across russia in. claiming and accusing the authorities of rigging the parliamentary vote on december the fourth certainly the. have to notice such a strong public resonance and that sense and certainly they have tried to make this

particular vote saying the most transparent in russia's history life webcams were installed at more than ninety one thousand polling stations across the country a project which cost a billion u.s. dollars to the state budget also hundreds of thousands of independent observers those are regular russian citizens just willing to play their part in the election process were there at the polling stations as well something and preceded for for the russian history certainly as well as certainly seven hundred international observers who were also there they said that they have not have not managed to see any major force if occasions or any major violations certainly we have to talk about this outcome of the voting with the people who are experts on this and that's why we joined in moscow here live by even the researcher at russian academy of sciences many thanks for joining us on this day here my first question to you judging by the overwhelming support of putin everywhere across russia we've got sixty four percent almost

a year but in most go we understand that he support did not reach fifty percent why do you think this happened in the russian capital why he supported smaller than in the regions i would had the magnitude of the problems russia faces now is absolutely no different in that it used to be twelve and a half years ago when we first came into power as the prime minister of russia. years ago with the very existence of russian federation as integrated concha was questioned there was a major war on ourselves borders in the north caucuses russia had just had its falls and so on so no new generation out. for those twelve years of stability and steady konami growth so breed of young people has developed people who have never seen taken on a collapse of the soviet union and all those problems that criminal revolution bed took place in russian planes years ago so now they have

a different mentality absolutely they have a different mentality here they don't cease to. be. a development of economy as some kind of put in the children they find it's normal to travel alone to europe and they have absolutely different demands and it has proven to be either a flexible politician or meeting the needs of the russian population in this way how successful he is in the next six or maybe even twelve years depends on how flexible he is in a meeting of the demands of those younger people because we are expecting a huge opposition rally in the city center just in about for me five hours from now what is this protest about is a just a flash of anger just something over you know just happened one time or will it be a permanent protest just as we've seen for the last three or four months in your view in my opinion first of all to have to understand those people who are common to strip a minority of those people. so called. and ikea's and national

socialist party is. very well organized by a majority of those people those office managers people who make good money and one just to have their voice healed and then the need more change most of them don't even understand what kind of kid you should be warned but the maybe you're alive which is closer to a european european style and in this case it's very important to listen for them to spend their time on thank you so much this was a researcher with the russian academy of sciences talking about his view on the outcome of the votes and certainly we're keeping a close eye on everything which is happening in moscow so it would be obvious if you were with all the latest information as we get it absolutely. you live for us from central moscow thanks for that update. foreign observers say russia has adhered to the principles of a fair and free election in for one of those monitors belgian politician and marie

louise in said she saw no by relations in the polling stations that she and her colleagues person. of summer in russia from the first election at the beginning of the ninety's to now and it is really an increasing process when it was a positive action and missiles this weapon can be in a lot of as a country and it is in this case we should say as we use it in britain we use it in belgium for the police control to with the cities i really think that it is just going to reality so it can be used as this different and it is good we have seen all of the. road there and it was very well each of them even in the league. of physics was very very well then very technical functioning and people observers who were everywhere.

stay with us here on r t for day two of our special presidential election coverage . election studio we'll start broadcasting at three pm g.m.t. will be bringing you the latest results and a variety of opinions across the political spectrum. well international monitors have been praising the election there is a rather different view from some russian observers let's get the details on this from marquis jacob please live for us so jacob what's been the position of some of these local monitors. some of the opposition movements to establish their own websites has to be said to verdicts on this is greatly to that will be said to election commission also received lots of go to some independent one tree body based in russia where they said that they have won fifty percent of the vote their

own pouts but they're not disputing that he was the votes of the presidency rather the margin which he did it how you also leisure three thousand violations took place on election day i think louise ballot stuffing also includes a carousel bossi where a number of people go to one particular polling station of votes a multiple amount of times it's a true election commissions are future based saying that there were circumstances of people bussed to polling stations they say though it was part of measures to ensure that such people especially workers to get the rights of but also the central issue commissions how to answer questions here when it comes to a video that's been uploaded on to you shoot this is purge of all polling station in the russian republic of dagestan in the north caucuses where there's allegations of ballot stuffing taking place the election commission estates responded saying that any of the voting taking place in that polling station will be in old camps the end result. so you're going to how have the opposition leaders been taking this

news of the very prominent opposition candidates and presidential candidates have been outspoken on this issue very critical indeed now. russian billionaire get about thirty thousand monitors helping oversee election process they come up with four thousand irregularities if they want to take to court also the larger good. he says that there are so many irregularities. they should be an old admission really counts. does this mean that we're going to see more protests in the streets . but the stage behind me at the moment be. full of protests that take place about seven pm moscow time this is another opposition movement really echoing the sentiment we see characterize this presidential campaign so far all of our anger and starting to look for your list parliamentary elections with allegations

of fraud and a real perception of inaction with or to that comes these allegations themselves that hasn't diminished through the course this presidential campaign there have been those who have been expressing their support. the prime minister during the presidential campaign getting behind him and his message that tonight should not show you through to the prime minister coming out in force to oppose this protest all right i think you can breeze live from pushkin square in central moscow thanks for that update. comment in the e.u. has been mostly critical of his decision to run again for the presidency we go now to our europe correspondent. brussels who's been gauging the mood there for us. saying now that putin has been named officially the white. well for much of the european press putin winning the presidential elections is

a foregone conclusion and even based on the pre-election polls they've already been reported back to whatever be a focus of their coverage are coming from the opposition forces of course the claims of irregularities and votes for example and even just the coverage of the election itself let's look at some of the headlines you see in the papers here is a french newspaper showing putin right there saying be a big return of putin a to the kremlin over down here they also talk about claims of widespread fraud the same with this spanish spanish newspaper over here putin on the front page saying that the opposition is growing and seeing with the germans and now there's the headlines you can see the way it's being phrased right now for example here's putin whens russian president vote fraud claims so while again the fact that putin is going to be going back to the presidential position we do keep reporting and covering the growing opposition voices that they see specially called calling for a free and fair elections and also they're seeing talking about the shift

a shift in russian civil society waiting to see how this will impact how the russian leadership or whoever it may be will react to this movement they've also even as the votes were being counted they were looking at the reaction of some russians who are saying in part during this election we did not feel like we did not have any choice basically voting for parties that they may not necessarily believe it but as a protest gesture against united russia and against putin so much of the coverage of europe have been very critical and it will continue to focus on these aspects keeping a close eye on the opposition movement and again how the russian leadership is going to react to that. have there been any official statements from leaders so far of course this is the leader of russia that they're going to deal with for the next six years. certainly will official statements with the guard to the results of the election that we haven't heard about so far however after in the. last week several of them had stated that they do want to adopt

a wait and see attitude and wait till after the russian elections to be able to reassess different positions on the various international issues they've mentioned syria the mention of iran also what we did hear from the a foreign minister of germany did they give an interview on sunday to a local paper and there he said the title read what vests are vella praises russian election protests he says this is an interesting and positive sign that the demonstrations of this magnitude are taking place he doesn't think it's a lot of action however he did point out of the no matter the outcome of russia's elections germany will pursue was your tutor pollution with russia and this is this is a lot of the commentators were also saying that regardless of what the leaders may think the opinions they may have of whoever is russia's next president the fact remains that russia is still a partner in trade of business and variety of other issues and they will have to look at the impact on the russian european relations or if he's alive without a peep from brussels thank you. asia times correspondent pepe escobar in thailand

says that despite the russian people making their choice clear he thinks the u.s. is still on a mission to verify the country. if you're not part of the anglo american masters of the universe narrative you are by definition an entity you can be a russian it can be venezuela can be quite cuba it could even be argentina and it isn't appears that it could be china or whatever could north korea of course syria whatever deployed its care over. voting was reelected with sixty three sixty four percent he's going to be there for six years he already outlined what it is going to do in terms of international relations he published a very long article in foreign policy last week was translated at least by some european newspapers but not by american you'll say purse and that's it you know it's multiple of world close cooperation with pricks fighting need to encroachments which is a very very strong preoccupation of most russian voters and trying to find

a police a full russia in this new emerging multiple or organise russia according to the script or steal to russia was not supposed to be something like this was supposed to be a vassal state like a kind of huge set to everyone sure washington interests and in fact russia closer to china the brics came up they start to get the big rates get russia start to be more forceful ammonia centuries and stands as well therefore people ready for to strategic partnership with germany in fact if you go germany invest the russia and russia selling basically natural resources to germany and of course from the point of view of washington this is absolutely a horrible story but there's nothing they can do about it. and investors are probably seeing it in the results of the elections as the trading is underway on the global stock market so that's why more of the business just like you will be

i'm so curious what are the russian markets operators are well they look very healthy indeed actually we started off the day with a rally we then went some modest gains and now we've got respectful respectful gains at the moment which is a positive picture but if we look at the boston bosses in general this year we're looking at a sort of twenty four percent and they're actually heading for their highest level in seven months as investors are very positive you know they love stability and analysts are also saying that they're expecting another rally in about two months time once the cabinet of ministers is formed so if we look at the figures for this hour you'll be able to see that it is looking the l.t.s. is just the percents imposed on the my six point six percent take a look at the stocks and see how they're fairing at the moment we've got to be having a strong against this hour we've also got energy majors ross nursing gazprom they too are indeed in the black. as you can see as i say the t v one point three

percent was their point six percent gasp one point five percent are is looking good today investors they seem positively like that moving on the go to different parts of all this is a very different picture actually were investors aren't too wasn't happy until we got the footsie down half a percent in the one point one percent down that we've got with greece situation coming to the forefront again this week. due to meet their creditors once again kicking the can down the road we've heard it before we'll be following the situation a four year is have a look at the exchange rates for this hour for those of you perhaps off on holiday at some point we've got the ruble as you can see it's losing against both the euro and save us dollars park a change of fortune for the euros bounce back. against the us dollar it was losing for a few days not teach you a sin at the moment the math i'll have more faith and found now it's time but all

right thanks very much katie we'll check back with you next hour well president medvedev has ordered a review of the sentence that was handed down to jailed former oil tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky the prosecutor general is in charge and due to report his findings april first how to post new serving consecutive prison terms on tax and fraud charges or he's a marine a poster of his latest. it's really come as a surprise that this was somebody we did say that he was considering a pardon because i didn't go see it but he admitted his guilt and he would do that if he won the presidential elections we also know that this comes after a meeting presently think it had with the leaders of our largest search and largely oppositional political parties here in russia and this is just a temporary and sleazy day gave them a list of people they're regard as political prisoners and will release the post his lawyer has already said that he would have to judge the significance of this move once the investigation was completed and the post was of course russia's

richest man at some point he was also the c.e.o. of ucas which was the largest oil company in the country and then he was arrested in two thousand and three and prosecutors claim that he still will from his own company worth around twenty seven billion dollars and that he wants to sell that abroad at higher prices because political skill and of being convicted in sioux fraud trials and is expected to release since two thousand and sixteen his supporters have always said that the original charges were politically motivated because because i don't believe steve he's too fond of russian opposition parties now this review applies to his second conviction which is based on embezzlement and financial crimes and if this is lifted that means that make up for the post it will be a free man once again. he's name was mentioned during this presidential campaign many times the newcomer to the top political arena also said the former oil tycoon

should be released to find out what the billionaire turned politician thinks about the outcome of the election we go live with our lindsey france. the prover of did better than some of been around for several decades in this election what plans and ambitions does it appear that he has for the future. well matt look. like the plans are many be youngest man on devout the only independent he took eight ovals nearly eight percent of the vote now analysts say that it's points to the fact that so russian politics is hungry for competition analysts and experts also say that the fact that he took second in moscow st petersburg and a category in birth a point to the fact that he appeals very heavily to a strong middle class professional demographic his t.v. also says that he his campaign team also says that his talents as

a builder of wealth also really appeals to people who especially in this economy are really looking for a lot of financial security in a leader a leader with a strong high for that sort of thing now mikhail prokhorov is listed in forbes as having eighteen billion dollars with holdings in gold aluminum and of course the new jersey nets he's the only he's the first foreign owner of an n.b.a. basketball team in history and he's also got many nonprofit and never says well focusing mostly on cultural diversification across russia he sounded the mikail procure a fund in two thousand and four to work on that and it's done a lot of good things for a lot of young people in this country especially with like i said cultural diversification and even the arts now aside from that he's his eight percent of the vote means he's now got

a solid political foundation so he made the announcement he will be starting his own his own political party and possibly in the coming years maybe running for president but that of course will be decided by through his own party when the time comes out in a phone conversation with bloody murder putin last night of hussein actually congratulated him on his how decisive. number is a problem. and he also wished him the best of luck and let it go feature writer he's lindsey friends live in central moscow with an update thanks very much. for the voting it may be finished in russia's presidential election but there is another vote that you can take part in that's our online poll they were asking you what the biggest challenge facing russia's next president will be here the results so far most of you forty percent believe that spending off nato encroachments will be the biggest challenge almost a third are you getting rid of corruption should be the top priority seventeen percent say the main task be to modernize the country's economy and politics nine

percent say keeping the russian economy taking i mean world economic problems and the minority seven percent vote for boosting russia's global leverage as its biggest priority what do you think. and cast your. vote the impact of the recent opposition protests in russia on putin and his policies is one of the main discussions coming up later in crosstalk here's a preview. it was different in the sense that it was a lot more democratic and so much of that committee had to play to the gallery in the way that he hasn't done before i think that picture is a good thing yes yes i think the big change is you know up until this election thirteen has been above politics and he hasn't been a politician is just the president whatever you want to call him however the

demonstrations you know he was dictating that they could break by saying this is important and then everybody talked about whatever he chose the difference with this election is that he did the demonstrations and pulled him down into the process and he's lost control of the debate and so he's become. responsible accountable in the way that he never has before which is not to say that he is responsible accountable in the way that we have in the west nevertheless it was the beginning of real politics if you like in russia. that's coming your way a little over an hour here on our team but before that our and i got our headlines here with us.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. for asians around the day.