Russia’s leader said his main tasks will be winning the war in Ukraine and strengthening the armed forces will be his main goals.
Vladimir Putin has won a fifth term as president in a landslide victory – in an election with an all but certain outcome.
Russia’s number one faced only token challengers, amid a ruthless crackdown on opposition.
Election officials said Putin – who will now serve another six-year term on top of his nearly quarter-century rule – won more than 87% of the vote.
He said Russia’s democratic system was more transparent than many in the West, scorning US democracy.
The first day of voting was marred by sporadic protests and acts of vandalism, including arson attacks on polling stations and the destruction of some ballot boxes. There was no repeat of these incidents after Friday.
At least 80 Russians were detained, according to the monitoring group OVD-Info.
With little room for protest, supporters of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny crowded outside polling stations at 12:00 on Sunday as a form of symbolic protest.
Putin hailed the early results as an indication of “trust” and “hope” in him, while Western countries criticised the vote.
His victory speech focused on the war in Ukraine, as Russia’s president said his main task would be securing the border from Ukrainian raids and “strengthening defence capacity and the military.”
Questioned about rising tensions with NATO, Putin said: “I think that everything is possible in the modern world … everyone understands that this would be one step from a full-scale third world war. I don’t think that anyone is interested in that.”
Western leaders said the vote was neither fair nor free.
“The polls have closed in Russia, following the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE monitoring. This is not what free and fair elections look like,” wrote British Foreign Secretary David Cameron on X.
Germany called it a “pseudo-election”, blasting the censorship and violent repression of Putin’s rule.
Any public criticism of the president or his war in Ukraine has been stifled. Independent media have been crippled. Putin’s fiercest political foe, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month, and other critics are either in jail or in exile.
Independent monitoring of the election was extremely limited, plus only token challengers to Putin were allowed to run.
According to Russia’s Central Election Commission, Putin had some 87% of the vote with about 90% of precincts counted.
Meduza, Russia’s biggest independent news outlet, published photos of ballots it received from readers, with “killer” inscribed on one, “thief” on another and “The Hague awaits you” on yet another.
The last refers to an arrest warrant for Putin from the International Criminal Court that accuses him of personal responsibility for abductions of children from Ukraine.
Some people told the AP that they were happy to vote for Putin.
Dmitry Sergienko, who cast his ballot in Moscow, said, “I am happy with everything and want everything to continue as it is now.”
Voting also took place in the illegally annexed regions of Ukraine.