Putin heads towards sweeping election victory

MOSCOW, March 18 (KUNA) -- Russia's outgoing President Vladimir Putin is heading towards a sweeping election victory in Sunday's presidential election, with more than 75 percent of the vote, preliminary results showed.
After counting 50 percent of the votes, the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) announced that Putin secured 75.01 percent of the votes.
CPRF candidate Pavel Grudining came second by 13.39 percent of votes, and LDPR candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky won 6.34 percent of the vote and ranked third, the CEC stated.
None of the other five candidates is on track to receive more than two percent of the vote.
Following the preliminary results, Putin expressed gratitude to all his supporters and voters.
He suggested that the voting results demonstrated people's confidence and hope for further development of the country.
To achieve this goal, he urged all to cling to the national unity.
The president commented on the Skripal case and dismissed the UK accusations against Russia in this case.
"It is nonsense and absurd to claim that Russia would do anything like that before the elections and the World Cup," he said. (end) os.ibi