UPDATE - Vladimir Putin wins Russian presidential election with 87.29%, preliminary results confirm

UPDATES WITH ADDRESS BY PUTIN AFTER EXIT POLL RESULTS ON SUNDAY, FURTHER INFORMATION; CHANGES HEAD, LEDE

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Vladimir Putin received 87.32% of the vote in Russia's three-day presidential election, with 99.75% of ballots counted, the head of country’s election authority confirmed on Monday.

Ella Pamfilova, head of the Russian Central Election Commission, said during a press conference in Moscow that Putin got 75.9 million votes in the election.

She added that 87.1 million people had voted in the polls, amounting to a record turnout of 77.44%, surpassing the previous high of 74.66% in the 1991 presidential election.

More than 12 million DDoS cyberattacks had been carried out on the Central Election Commission's resources during the three-day vote, Pamfilova added.

She went on to say that Putin's closest competitor Nikolai Kharitonov, supported by Russia's Communist Party, received 4.3% of votes, while the New People party's Vladislav Davankov got 3.84%, followed by Liberal Democratic Party of Russia candidate Leonid Slutsky with 3.21%.

The Central Election Commission will sum up the results of the presidential election on March 21, Pamfilova added.

- 'A strong, independent, sovereign Russia'

In a victory address at his campaign headquarters, Putin had said late on Sunday that he hopes the election results allow Russians to build a "strong, independent, sovereign" country.

Putin underlined that for him, the choice of the Russian people is what is important, rather than the reactions of other nations.

He went on to say that a future full-scale conflict between Russia and NATO could not be ruled out, which would bring the world "one step away" from a third world war, which, he said, is in nobody's interest.

Reiterating that Russia favors peace negotiations on the war in Ukraine, he said France could play a role in this.

On recent "aggressive foreign rhetoric" by French President Emmanuel Macron, who suggested in recent weeks that Western troops could be deployed in Ukraine, Putin said these remarks were meant to "slightly cover up domestic political problems."

He also said the political situation in the US was not that of a democracy, but a "disaster" that "the whole world is laughing at."

On what he called attempts by China's enemies to provoke Beijing on the matter of Taiwan, which China sees as its breakaway province, Putin said these were "doomed to complete failure."

Putin went on to describe the death of late Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny as a "sad event." He also mentioned that he had agreed to exchange Navalny for certain individuals imprisoned in the West a several days before his death.

Following the results of the vote, multiple heads of state conveyed their congratulations to Putin on his reelection, including the presidents of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, China, Honduras, Iran, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, North Korea, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during an evening address, described the election as "illegitimate" and said Putin had "become addicted to power and is doing everything he can to rule forever."