Russian President Vladimir Putin is celebrating a landslide reelection victory after three days of voting that offered no real alternatives. While there were some protests, he used his victory speech to declare Russia is united behind him. NBC’s Keir Simmons reports for TODAY.
Friday evening, Moscow time, four or five armed men strolled into the Crocus Concert Hall in northwest Moscow and opened fire on the crowd. Before departing the area they had killed at least 40 people and wounded over 100 more.
The West has criticised the polling process, saying that it was neither free nor fair.
Surprising no one, Russia's incumbent president Vladimir Putin cinched reelection for a fifth term Sunday. The "exit polls" show Putin winning 87 percent of the vote compared to 76.69 percent in his last election. Nationwide turnout was 74.22 percent when polls closed, election officials said, surpassing 2018 levels of 67.5 percent.
Voters in Russia had virtually no choice, public criticism of Putin and his war in Ukraine has been stifled, and independent media have been crippled.
Did Russian President Vladimir Putin overplay his hand? Only five days after Putin breezed to another six-year term in power following a heavily stage-managed election, Russia suffered its deadliest terrorist attack in decades. At least 140 people died when attackers stormed Crocus City Hall, a shopping and entertainment complex on Moscow’s northwestern edge, first raking concertgoers with gunfire and then setting the venue ablaze. Putin’s near-immediate response to Friday's attack was to blame...
By Matthew Walsh Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to Vladimir Putin on Monday, telling his Russian counterpart his re-election “fully reflects the support of the Russian people”, Beijing’s state media reported. With 99 percent of polling stations having submitted results, Putin had secured 87.33 percent of all votes cast, official election data […]
Russians crowded outside polling stations at midday Sunday on the last day of a presidential election, apparently heeding an opposition call to protest against President Vladimir Putin in a vote that offered them no real alternatives.
Russia began three days of voting on Friday in an presidential election that is set to extend the rule of Vladimir Putin by six more years.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that SpaceX's Starshield business unit was building a spy network under a $1.8 billion contract signed in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency that manages spy satellites.Read Entire Article
Vladimir Putin secured an unprecedented fifth term as president of Russia Monday, as the election commission announced the results of a vote in which he faced no serious challenges and which happened amid the strictest crackdown on opposition and free speech since Soviet times.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Monday that a direct conflict between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance would mean the planet was one step away from World War III, but said no one wanted such a scenario, Reuters reports. Putin has often warned of the risks of nuclear war, but says […]