YEKATERINBURG, Russia (AP) - Russian voters are heading to the polls for a presidential election in which Vladimir Putin's victory is assured - the only question being how convincing his mandate will be for his fourth term.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. Sunday in Russia's Far East regions of Chukotka and Kamchatka. Voting will conclude at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT; 2 p.m. EDT) in Kaliningrad, the Baltic exclave that is Russia's westernmost region.

Putin is so certain of winning that authorities are investing instead in massive get-out-the-vote efforts to produce a turnout that would embolden the Russian leader both domestically and internationally.

Yevgeny Roizman, the mayor of Russia's fourth-largest city Yekaterinburg, says local officials and state employees have received orders "from higher up" to make sure the presidential vote turnout is over 60 percent.

A man sets a banner reads "2018 March Election of Russian President" as he prepares a polling station for Sunday's election in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 16, 2018. There are eight candidates in Sunday's Russian presidential election, including President Vladimir Putin. With his approval rating topping 80 percent and rivals trailing far behind, Putin is set to easily win a fourth term. Putin's most vocal critic, the 41-year-old opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was barred from the race due to a criminal conviction that he calls politically motivated. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

FILE - In this file photo taken on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018, Russian TV host Ksenia Sobchak speaks about her campaign to challenge Vladimir Putin in the March 18 presidential election, during an interview to the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia. There are eight candidates in Sunday's Russian presidential election, including President Vladimir Putin. With his approval rating topping 80 percent and rivals trailing far behind, Putin is set to easily win a fourth term. Putin's most vocal critic, the 41-year-old opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was barred from the race due to a criminal conviction that he calls politically motivated. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

People walk through a street with an election poster that reads: "Choose President - Choose Future!" in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Saturday, March 17, 2018. Just like in any other city or town in Russia, thousands of state employees in Yekaterinburg are under pressure from the management to come out to vote in Sunday's presidential election in line with the Kremlin's efforts to boost the turnout. (AP Photo/Nataliya Vasilyeva)

A woman holds a flag that reads "I love Kamchatka, we are the first!" as she prepares to cast her ballots at a polling station in Yelizovo, about 30 kilometers ( 19 miles) north-east from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, capital of Kamchatka Peninsula region, Russian Far East, Russia, on Sunday, March. 18, 2018. Polls have opened in Russia's Far East regions for the presidential election in which Vladimir Putin is seeking a fourth term in the Kremlin. (AP Photo/Alexander Petpov) </s> Voters in Russia go to the polls on March 18 in a presidential election that is all but certain to secure President Vladimir Putin a fourth term in office.

The 65-year-old incumbent is riding a wave of government-stoked popularity on the fourth anniversary of Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and in the wake of a military intervention in Syria that has been played up on state-controlled television as a patriotic success.

The election comes as Russia's relations with Britain are highly strained over the nerve-agent poisoning in Salisbury of a former Russian spy that London blames on Moscow.

In addition, the United States on March 15 imposed yet another round of sanctions on Russian firms and individuals in connection with what Washington says was Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

These tensions, however, only bolster Putin's popular image as a defender of Russia and give credence to his assertions that Russia is surrounded by foreign enemies.

The other seven candidates in the presidential election trail far behind Putin in opinion polls, with Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin polling 7 percent and journalist Ksenia Sobchak at just 2 percent. According to the Kremlin-friendly All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion, Putin is polling 69 percent support.

According to a Gallup poll, taken late in 2017, 80 percent of Russians approve of Putin's leadership, while only 40 percent have confidence in the reliability of Russia's elections.

Polls close at 6 p.m. GMT on March 18 in Kaliningrad, Russia's westernmost territory, with preliminary results expected shortly afterward.

Other candidates include nationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky, nationalist Sergei Baburin, Communists of Russia candidate Maksim Suraikin, centrist Boris Titov, and liberal Grigory Yavlinsky.

Putin's only significant potential rival, opposition politician and anticorruption activist Aleksei Navalny, has been barred from participating in the election because of a felony embezzlement conviction that has been widely seen as trumped up and politically motivated.

Navalny, who has dismissed the election as "the reappointment of Vladimir Putin," has called on voters to boycott. The Kremlin and local authorities have launched a wide-ranging carrot-and-stick effort to boost turnout in order to bolster the appearance of the election's legitimacy.

Russian media have cited unidentified Kremlin sources as saying the government was aiming for a turnout of 70 percent, with 70 percent of the vote going to Putin.

Security will be intensified across the country. Police in Moscow have announced plans to put 17,000 officers, National Guard troops, and other security personnel on the streets on election day. Polling stations will be checked by bomb-sniffing dogs.

The Central Election Committee refused to accredit independent election monitors organized by Navalny, as well as those organized by the Golos election-monitoring NGO.

The campaign has been low-key, with Putin largely declining to participate. The other candidates held a series of nationally televised "debates" that frequently deteriorated into shouting matches, name-calling, and fisticuffs.

Putin, who has been president or prime minister since 1999, would be 71 when the six-year term expires in 2024. Under the current constitution, he would not be eligible to seek another consecutive term, but he could repeat the tactic he used in 2008 when he allowed Dmitry Medvedev to take the presidency for one term while he continued to wield decisive power as prime minister.

If no candidate secures a majority, a second round of voting would be held on April 8.

With reporting by BBC, Reuters, Time, and TASS </s> Vladimir Putin sailed to electoral victory on Sunday, winning a huge popular mandate for a fourth presidential term at a time of escalating tensions between Russia and the West.

In a widely expected outcome, the Central Election Commission, with just in excess of 70 per cent of the votes counted, announced that Putin had won 75.9 per cent of the vote, a marked increase on the 64 per cent he won at the last election, in 2012.

None of the seven candidates running against the incumbent president posed a serious threat. Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most popular opposition leader, was barred from the ballot. Opposition groups said the election was marred by widespread fraud, but the Russian election commission said irregularities had not significantly altered the result of the vote.

Mr Putin’s victory will extend his time in office until 2024, when he will be 71 and Russia’s longest-serving leader since Joseph Stalin. During the election campaign he pledged to continue to boost Russia’s military might if he won a fourth term, to defend the country against hostile outside forces.

In his annual state-of-the-nation speech early this month he unveiled an array of advanced nuclear weaponry that Kremlin critics say will unleash a new cold-war arms race.

Tensions with the West, already badly strained by the Kremlin’s aggressive policies in Ukraine and alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, have reached breaking point this month following the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in the UK.

Russian officials have denied involvement in the attack on Sergei Skripal, in Wiltshire, and cast the UK accusations as a provocation designed to upset the election campaign.

On Sunday, Putin dismissed British accusations of Russia’s involvement in the poisoning as “nonsense”, but added that Moscow is ready to co-operate with London in the investigation.

On Sunday night a jubilant crowd of Putin supporters flocked to a square near the Kremlin to celebrate the election victory. Russians had consolidated around the national leader in response to outside pressure, said Andrei Kondrashov, press secretary for Mr Putin’s election campaign team. “Every time Russia faces indiscriminate and unproven accusations about something or other , it makes the Russian people unite around a central force. Today that central force is definitely Putin.” Additional reporting: PA and Reuters </s> Moscow - Vladimir Putin was Monday set for another six years in power after his landslide victory in Russia's presidential election but so far only close allies have congratulated him as Moscow's relations with the West disintegrate.

 

 Putin, who has ruled Russia for almost two decades, recorded his best election performance with 76.67 percent of the vote but rejected the possibility of staying in power indefinitely.

 

 The opposition said the results were rigged, reporting ballot stuffing and other cases of alleged fraud as the Kremlin pushed for a high turnout to give greater legitimacy to Putin's historic fourth term.

 

 Putin, who has extended his power until at least 2024 and is already Russia's longest-serving leader since Stalin, ruled out remaining president for life.

 

 "Listen to me. It seems to me that what you are saying is a bit funny," he told reporters Sunday night when asked if he saw himself running for president again in 2030.

 

 "What, am I going to sit here until I am 100 years old? No." 

 

 The Russian strongman ran against seven other candidates, but his most vocal critic Alexei Navalny was barred from the ballot for legal reasons and the final outcome was never in doubt.

 

 "I see in this (result) the confidence and hope of our people," Putin said in an address to a crowd of supporters on a square next to the Kremlin after exit polls put him on track for a resounding victory.

 

 Turnout was at more than 67 percent as authorities used both the carrot and the stick to boost engagement in the polls.

 

 Selfie competitions, giveaways, food festivals and children's entertainers were laid on at polling stations in a bid to create a festive atmosphere around the election.

 

 But employees of state and private companies reported coming under pressure to vote.

 

 According to central election commission data with 99.8 percent of ballots counted, Putin took 76.67 percent of the vote, well ahead of his nearest competitor Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin, who was on 11.79 percent.

 

 Ultra-nationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky took around 5.66 percent, former reality TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak was on 1.67 percent, while veteran liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky received just over 1 percent of the vote.

 

 - 'Demand justice' -

 

 Navalny -- who called on his supporters to boycott the "fake" vote and sent more than 33,000 observers across the country to see how official turnout figures differed from those of monitors -- said there had been "unprecedented violations".

 

 Navalny's opposition movement and the non-governmental election monitor Golos reported ballot stuffing, repeat voting and Putin supporters being bussed into polling stations en masse.

 

 But the electoral commission dismissed most concerns, saying monitors sometimes misinterpret what they see.

 

 Runner-up Grudinin said the elections had been "dishonest."

 

 NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has lived in Russia after leaking classified information about the US government's surveillance programmes, tweeted a picture apparently showing ballot stuffing in a Russian school.

 

 "The ballot stuffing seen today in Moscow and elsewhere in the Russian election is an effort to steal the influence of 140+ million people," he said.

 

 "Demand justice; demand laws and courts that matter."

 

 - Xi congratulates Putin -

 

 The election was held as Russia faces increasing isolation on the world stage over a spy poisoning in Britain and a fresh round of US sanctions just as it gears up for the football World Cup in the summer.

 

 Among the few leaders to congratulate Putin so far was Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has just been handed a second term himself and has gained a path to indefinite rule after presidential term limits were lifted last week.

 

 "China is willing to work with Russia to keep promoting China-Russia relations to a higher level, provide driving force for respective national development in both countries, and promote regional and global peace and tranquility," Xi said.

 

 In Latin America, the presidents of the leftist regimes in Venezuela and Bolivia both effusively congratulated Putin on his "overwhelming" victory.

 

 Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also commended "the glorious Russian people for its display of civic duty" while Bolivia's Evo Morales said Putin's victory "guarantees geopolitical equilibrium and world peace before the onslaught of imperialism".

 

 Since first being elected president in 2000, Putin has stamped his total authority on the world's biggest country, muzzling opposition, putting television under state control and reasserting Moscow's standing abroad. 

 

 The 65-year-old former KGB officer used an otherwise lacklustre presidential campaign to emphasise Russia's role as a major world power, boasting of its "invincible" new nuclear weapons in a pre-election speech.

 

 Putin's previous Kremlin term was marked by a crackdown on the opposition after huge protests, the Ukraine conflict, military intervention in Syria and the introduction of Western sanctions that contributed to a fall in living standards.

 

 - Nerve agent attack row -

 

 In the runup to the vote, a new crisis broke out with the West as Britain implicated Putin in the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal with a Soviet-designed nerve agent.

 

 In response, London expelled 23 Russian diplomats, prompting a tit-for-tat move by Moscow. Also this week, Washington hit Russia with sanctions for trying to influence the 2016 US election. 

 

 After his victory, Putin dismissed claims Russia was behind the poisoning in Britain as "drivel, rubbish, nonsense" but said Moscow was ready to cooperate with London in the probe.

 

 The president has said he will use his fourth term to address a litany of domestic problems including widespread poverty and poor healthcare. </s> Vladimir Putin cruised to a landslide victory in Russia’s presidential vote, extending his 18-year rule amid escalating confrontation with the West.

The Kremlin’s longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had almost 77 percent of the vote with about 95 percent of the ballots counted, putting him on track for a new six-year term. The results represented record support for Putin, who barely campaigned before Sunday’s vote and faced no real competition in an election that even some of his seven rival candidates described as a farce.

“Thank you very much. Together, we’ll take on a great task in the name of Russia,” a triumphant Putin told a crowd of flag-waving supporters at a rally near Moscow’s Red Square Sunday evening. “Success awaits us.”

The Russian leader, 65, rules unchallenged at home even as the economy stagnates after the longest recession in two decades. Abroad, he faces spiraling conflict after the U.K. directly accused Putin of ordering the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal earlier this month. He has defied U.S. and EU sanctions over his 2014 annexation of Crimea and diplomatic pressure over Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Putin’s defiance of the West has played well in the campaign with an electorate nostalgic for Russia’s superpower status.

“Putin isn’t going to retreat an inch,” said Evgeny Minchenko, a Moscow-based political consultant who advises the Kremlin. “He’ll push for maximum independence from the West and build alliances with other centers of power.”

Putin, who’s also been accused of cyber-attacks and election meddling, including in the U.S. 2016 presidential vote, secured the results despite opposition calls for a boycott. Turnout was reported high at about 67 percent.

“I came here to vote for stability,” said Larisa Kuznetsova, a 62-year-old pensioner, outside a polling station in central Moscow. “That’s what we count on from our president in such a frightening world.”

Official turnout figures in different regions of Russia are being inflated by as much as 18 percentage points, opposition leader Alexey Navalny said on Twitter, citing data compiled by his observers at polling stations. Navalny, who was barred from contesting the election, had called for a boycott of the vote in protest.

There’s been “widespread fraud” and observers have caught many instances of ballot-rigging on camera, according to Open Russia, an opposition organization founded by former oil tycoon and Kremlin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Election officials said violations were limited and didn’t influence the result.

In addition to accusing Putin, the U.K. expelled the largest number of Russian diplomats from London in 30 years. Russia retaliated by ordering out an equal number of British envoys as well as demanding the closure of the British Council cultural office and the U.K. consulate in St. Petersburg.

The U.S., Germany and France rallied behind the U.K., saying there’s “no plausible alternative explanation” to Russian responsibility for the first use of a chemical weapon on European soil since World War II. It’s unclear so far if they’ll back new measures to isolate Russia, which denies any involvement. European Union foreign ministers will discuss the crisis when they meet Monday in Brussels.

Speaking to reporters Sunday, Putin gave his most detailed public comments on the case, saying, “It’s complete nonsense to imagine that anyone in Russia could resort to such tricks ahead of the presidential elections and World Cup. It’s unthinkable.”

Putin campaign spokesman Andrei Kondrashov credited the tension with the U.K. for boosting turnout for the president with its tough line. “We need to say thank you to Great Britain because they again misread the Russian mindset,” he said, according to Interfax.

Putin’s ability to confront the West has increased after President Donald Trump’s election exposed fault lines between the U.S. and Europe and the U.K.’s vote to leave the EU, said Roderic Lyne, former British ambassador to Russia. “The West at the moment is rather fragmented because of transatlantic tensions and Brexit,” he said.

In the latest challenge, the Kremlin leader brandished new “invincible” nuclear weapons in his state-of-the-nation speech this month, amid confrontation with the U.S. over allegations Russia meddled to help Trump win. Russia has been accused of deploying cyber tools to encourage separatists in Spain’s Catalonia as well as opponents of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in elections last year.

Officials in Washington also said Thursday that Russian government-backed hackers are carrying out rolling attacks on “critical infrastructure” including the electric grid, water processing plants and air transportation facilities that are relied upon by hundreds of millions of Americans.

Confrontation ultimately could work against Putin because it’ll deprive Russia of investment and know-how needed to lift the economy out of the doldrums, said Oksana Antonenko, visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economic and Political Science. Russians, who’ve seen living standards steadily erode, are focused on issues such as low incomes and pensions, not foreign policy, according to opinion polls.

“If Putin wants Russia to build a modern economy, he can’t do that in conflict with the West,” said Antonenko. He’ll be judged at the end of his term on whether he’s improved living standards, she said.

Even so, Putin will use his next six years to assert his vision of a strong Russia, according to Joerg Forbrig, senior program director of the German Marshall Fund of the U.S.

“Putin now has a feeling of success, he feels the West is splintering,” Forbrig said by phone from Berlin. “The priority in the next term is to build on that.”

Constitutional limits ban Putin from seeking another term in 2024. Asked Sunday if he might consider running in 2030 — when he would be 77 — Putin dismissed the question as “funny,” saying “Am I going to stay around until I’m 100? No.” </s> Vladimir Putin won a landslide victory in Russia’s presidential election, receiving 76.67 percent of the vote, the central election commission said on Monday.

Putin, who has ruled Russia for almost two decades, recorded his best ever performance in Sunday’s polls, electoral officials said with 99.8 percent of ballots counted. </s> Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked his voters for their "unprecedented support" after the nation's electoral body published the final tally of the presidential vote on Friday. According to the data, the Sunday election saw Putin win nearly 76.7 percent of the vote and secure another six-year-term.

In a televised speech, Putin said he was "well aware" of the problems facing Russian citizens, including dropping incomes, gaps in healthcare provision, and issues with housing and utilities.

"We need a real breakthrough," he said. "I understand my colossal responsibility to Russian citizens, to the country."

"What we need is consequential, deep-seated change, thought-out moves that bring about steady positive results," Putin added.

The Russian president, who has been the nation's most powerful politician since 2000, pledged to create more jobs, fight poverty, develop infrastructure and education, as well as boost the development of "cities and villages."

"All of this will be based on a mighty leap in technology which we are about to make," Putin said, without providing details.

'We are all patriots'

Sunday's election saw Putin score an easy victory against his competitors, with the runner-up Pavel Grudinin of the Communist Party winning less than 12 percent of the vote, and the ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky placing third with 5.65 percent. Putin's best-known pro-Western rival, Alexei Navalny, was barred from running over a fraud case. The young opposition leader claims the charges had been trumped-up.

Putin urged his political opponents to cooperate with his efforts to improve Russia, saying that the move needed to have a "nationwide character and unite everyone."

"Yes, criticisms, arguments, discussions are necessary, but they there should be no place for irresponsible populism," he said. "The main orientation point for everyone, today most of all, should be in the national interest and for the benefit of the people."

Read more: What you need to know about the Russian presidential election

He added that he respected the voters who did not support him, but emphasized that "political preferences should not divide us."

"We are all patriots of our country," he said.

Vladimir Putin came to power as a successor to Russia's first post-Soviet president Boris Yeltsin. He has effectively remained the most powerful man in Russia since, including his stint as prime minister between 2008 and 2012. His most recent election success makes him the longest-serving Russian ruler since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. </s> MOSCOW — The Latest on the re-election of Vladimir Putin as Russian president (all times local):

Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked Russians for re-electing him, promising to foster economic growth and solve social problems.

In a live televised speech Putin, who won nearly 77 in Sunday's vote, said he wanted to express gratitude to the Russians for his strongest ever electoral victory.

He said Friday that the powerful support was particularly important now, when the country faces domestic and external challenges.

Putin said that the country needs to make a "real breakthrough" in many spheres and move to encourage economic growth, raise living standards, modernize health care, revive the infrastructure and solve environmental and other problems. He emphasized that Russia needs to make a "technological leap" to meet those challenges.

Russian electoral officials have officially declared incumbent President Vladimir Putin the winner of last Sunday's election.

The Central Election Commission on Friday issued final results, showing that Putin won nearly 77 of the vote. Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin came second with nearly 12 .

The vote was tainted by widespread reports of ballot-box stuffing and forced voting. Ella Pamfilova, chairwoman of the Election Commission, said at the commission's session on Friday that the vote was free and fair.

Sunday's win will keep Putin in office until 2024. </s> MOSCOW — The Latest on the re-election of Vladimir Putin as Russian president (all times local):

Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked Russians for re-electing him, promising to foster economic growth and solve social problems.

In a live televised speech Putin, who won nearly 77 per cent in Sunday’s vote, said he wanted to express gratitude to the Russians for his strongest ever electoral victory.

He said Friday that the powerful support was particularly important now, when the country faces domestic and external challenges.

Putin said that the country needs to make a “real breakthrough” in many spheres and move to encourage economic growth, raise living standards, modernize health care, revive the infrastructure and solve environmental and other problems. He emphasized that Russia needs to make a “technological leap” to meet those challenges.

Russian electoral officials have officially declared incumbent President Vladimir Putin the winner of last Sunday’s election.

The Central Election Commission on Friday issued final results, showing that Putin won nearly 77 per cent of the vote. Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin came second with nearly 12 per cent.

The vote was tainted by widespread reports of ballot-box stuffing and forced voting. Ella Pamfilova, chairwoman of the Election Commission, said at the commission’s session on Friday that the vote was free and fair.

Sunday’s win will keep Putin in office until 2024.
Voters in Russia cast their votes for the President of Russia. Incumbent Vladimir Putin wins a fourth term in office, with just over 75% of the popular vote.