Putin claims Russian presidential election win, Opposition alleges widespread fraud

Moscow, Mar 5(ANI): Russian Prime Minister Vlamidir Putin has claimed his victory in the country's presidential election provoking an opposition outrage. The latter haso alleged that the polls were marred by widespread fraud.

"I promised you we would win. We have won. Glory to Russia," The Guardian quoted Putin, as proclaiming at a Kremlin rally.

Putin congratulated his supporters for preventing unidentified outside forces from determining the country's fate, saying that the unprecedented protests against his rule have hit the country since a contested parliamentary vote in December have been curated by the West.

"We showed that no one can direct us in anything! We were able to save ourselves from political provocations, which have one goal: to destroy Russian sovereignty and usurp power," Putin said.

The central election commission gave Putin 63 percent votes with 22 percent of votes counted.

The state-run VTsIOM polling agency said its exit polls predicted that Putin would secure 58.3 percent of the vote.

But independent election monitors and opposition activists presented evidence of widespread falsification, including ballot stuffing and "carousel voting" - packing vans with voters and bussing them to several polling sites to cast numerous votes.

The Kremlin set up webcams at polling sites to combat fraud. One camera caught a man stuffing voting papers into a ballot box in Dagestan.

Putin's supporters have, however, rejected claims of voting irregularities.

"This is the cleanest election in Russia's entire history. The violations our rivals and the opponents of our president will now speak of are laughable," his campaign chief Stanislav Govorukhin said. (ANI)