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| Russia election 'clearly skewed' for Putin - OSCE | Russia election 'clearly skewed' for Putin - OSCE |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| Russia's presidential elections were "clearly skewed" in favour of the winner, Vladimir Putin, monitors with the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) have said. | |
| Preliminary results showed that Mr Putin, who is currently prime minister, won more than 63% of votes. | Preliminary results showed that Mr Putin, who is currently prime minister, won more than 63% of votes. |
| There have been widespread claims of fraud and vote violations, and the OSCE said the result was "never in doubt". | There have been widespread claims of fraud and vote violations, and the OSCE said the result was "never in doubt". |
| Opposition groups have called for mass protests against Mr Putin's win. | Opposition groups have called for mass protests against Mr Putin's win. |
| In a statement, the OSCE said while all candidates had been able to campaign freely, there had been "serious problems" from the start, conditions were "clearly skewed in favour of one of the contestants, current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin". | |
| "The point of elections is that the outcome should be uncertain," said spokesman Tonino Picula. | "The point of elections is that the outcome should be uncertain," said spokesman Tonino Picula. |
| "This was not the case in Russia. There was no real competition and abuse of government resources ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never in doubt." | "This was not the case in Russia. There was no real competition and abuse of government resources ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never in doubt." |
| 'Complete impudence' | |
| The election was held against a backdrop of discontent, sparked by allegations of widespread fraud during December's parliamentary elections in favour of Mr Putin's United Russia party. | |
| The OSCE said that "demands for honest elections by citizens and candidates led to greater civic involvement in observation efforts to enhance the integrity of the process. | |
| "But the process deteriorated during the vote count which was assessed negatively in almost one-third of polling stations observed due to procedural irregularities." | |
| The organisation has urged the Russian government to thoroughly investigate the allegations. | |
| Earlier Golos, a leading Russian independent election watchdog, said it had received more than 3,000 reports of voting fraud. | |
| The polls could be "characterised as usual for the last decade of Russian elections - with an insufficient level of competition, state interference in the election process and on several occasions forced voting". | |
| Other allegations, including some videos purporting to show evidence of voting irregularities, have been circulating online. There were reports of "carousel voting", with voters being bussed between polling stations to cast multiple ballots, and of people being paid to vote for Mr Putin. | |
| Alexei Navalny, a popular protest leader, told Reuters he had received reports of violations all day and that the carousels were "complete impudence". | |
| Mr Navalny told the Associated Press the government had "falsified the election" to avoid the vote going to a second round, believing that would "show weakness". | |
| However, Mr Putin's campaign chief Stanislav Govorukhin described the poll as "the cleanest in Russian history". | |
| Speaking to tens of thousands of supporters in Moscow on Sunday night, an emotional Mr Putin said he had won in an open and honest battle. | |
| "I promised you we would win, and we won - glory to Russia!" he said. | |
| He said his victory, despite large scale anti-government protests in recent months, showed that "no-one can force anything on us". | |
| Mr Putin moved into the post of prime minister in 2008 because of a constitutional ban on a third consecutive term as president. He will now be in office until 2018 - replacing his close ally Dmitry Medvedev - and could then run for another six-year term. | |
| Protest leaders have called for tens of thousands to take to the streets over the result, but the authorities have limited the number legally allowed to attend the rallies. | |
| There is tight security around the capital, Moscow, with 6,000 extra police brought in from outside. |