Voter turnout in Russia's presidential election reached 66.07 percent on the third and final day of voting, state media reported.
As of 1:50 p.m. Moscow time, turnout was higher than the last presidential campaign in 2018, according to data on the website of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation.
The presidential election of Russia takes place from March 15 to 17. For the first time, they are being extended for three days, including through remote online voting, which is available in about a third of the country's regions, according to authorities.
Over the past three days, the election has been marred by an increase in Ukrainian bombing and a series of incursions into Russian territory by pro-Ukrainian subversive groups. The new bombings prompted authorities to close schools and shopping malls in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, undermining the Kremlin's efforts to insulate Russians from the conflict in Ukraine - especially during the highly publicized election.
Putin, who voted online, promised a tough response to the attacks and accused Kiev of trying to "hinder" his bid for another six-year term.
The 71-year-old president has been in power in Russia since the last day of 1999 and is poised to extend his power over the country until 2030. If Putin completes another term in the Kremlin, he will remain in power longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century. He ran unopposed after disqualifying two candidates who opposed the conflict in Ukraine and about a month after his main opponent, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison under unexplained circumstances.
The Kremlin has presented the election as an opportunity for Russians to show they are behind Moscow's full-scale military campaign in Ukraine, where a vote is also being held in the occupied territory. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a day earlier welcomed Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula 10 years ago, when a referendum on its accession to Russia, not recognized by the international community, was held. "The peninsula is an integral part of the Russian Federation," Lavrov said in a statement on the ministry's website. /BGNES
