21.00 Moscow Time, which is 17.00 UTC, marked the end of voting in Russia’s presidential elections. This coincided with the closure of the polling stations in the country’s westernmost region of Kaliningrad.

Head of the Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov has already unveiled the results of a count of about one sixth of the ballot papers: "I am naming the contenders in alphabetical order. Vladimir Zhirinovsky got 8.01%, Gennady Ziuganov, 17.85%, Sergei Mironov, 3.67% Mikhail Prokhorov, 7.55%, and Vladimir Putin, 61.81%. The Central Election Commission has received and processed 14.5% of the counting protocols compiled by the district commissions".

In an exit poll conducted outside 1,000 polling stations in 63 regions, Putin got over 58%, Ziuganov, almost 18%, Prokhorov, a little over 9%, Zhirinovsky, 8.5%, and Mironov, less than 5%.

Overall, both the counts and the exit poll suggest a convincing outright victory by Vladimir Putin.

The voter turnout as of 18.00 Moscow Time amounted to over 56%. The comparable figure in the latest Duma elections last December was 50.4%. In the presidential elections of 2008, the total turnout reached 69.81%.

Now the irregularities in the voting process. The ‘Golos’ association says there were some 3 thousand. The ‘Civil Control’ organization says it received about several hundred complaints, of which only several dozen subsequently proved justified.

Most of the complaints were about illegal voting-day campaigning, mix-ups in voter lists and instances of ballot stuffing. There should be full clarity after the returning officers open all of the ballot boxes. Some of the culprits are already being held and questioned.

CIS observer from Azerbaijan Arif Ragimzade praises the organization of Russia’s elections: "I closely inspected eight polling stations and watched the voting there. I also met with representatives of the candidates and returning officers from several parties. I can confirm that the organization was perfect. Irregularities were conspicuous by their absence".

The organization at the polling stations during these elections was much better than at earlier honorary Speaker of the Belgian Parliament Anne-Marie Lizin told in an exclusive interview to the “Voice of Russia”:

"Well, I’s my fifth time in the elections in Russia. And I was in Tver area this time. So it’s 160 km from Moscow and it was very free.

And it was really very good organized and I’ve seen the first election looking from St. Petersburg and it was little beginning of the system in 92. And I must say that now people have the right list for all offices where we went, for all polling stations where we went it was good. And in one of the polling stations I somebody telling me you should go to another one because it was under comfort and I went to the one he advised me to go and really it was normal."

The final official results of Sunday’s elections are to be announced between March 14th and 17th.

Election 2012: Putin makes it in round 1

Russia’s presidential candidate Vladimir Putin is winning in the first round according to preliminary results after processing 47% of ballots. Observers see the main intrigue of the race in who will come third –independent candidate Mikhail Prokhorov or the head of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

By midnight Moscow time, almost 50% of ballots have been processed. Putin has scored over 64%, Gennady Zyuganov ( the Communist Party) 17.24%,  tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov 7.05%. Vladimir Zhirinovsky (the Liberal-Democratic Party)  6.8%,  Sergey Mironov (A Just Russia) - 3.7%.

Over 100,000 of Putin’s supporters celebrated their victory gathering in Moscow’s central Manezhnaya Square. PM also attended the event saying that the current elections were a political maturity and independence test for the country:

- Dear friends! I want to thank all Russians who voted today, especially those who gathered in Manezhnaya. I am grateful to all our supporters across our vast Motherland. Thanks to all who said Yes to great Russia. I asked you once: will we make it?

-Yes – chanted the crowd

-We made it!

-Oorah!

-We won in a fair and open battle.

-Putin!!-shouted the crowd.

Supporters of Gennady Zyuganov claimed violations even before the polls were closed. However, foreign observers don’t share these claims. They were very impressed with live streaming of the voting process via web-cams. Hungarian observer, Euro Parliament MP Bela Kovacs said that this technology should be  a model to imitate by many Western countries and the EU.

"Cameras are great for transparent and democratic elections. Being a Euro Parliament MP I will recommend this technology to my colleagues in the 2014 parliamentary elections".

A Just Russia candidate, Sergey Mironov, said that the current campaigning was more peaceful than the December Duma elections.

The Lib-Dems head, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, also made no claims though he was upset over the loss of votes in the Urals due to his inappropriate statements. However, he believes that his party will remain on Russia’s political arena despite the election result.

Tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov who is now outrunning Zhirinovsky expects to get  at least 11%. He said that, he run for presidency already being aware that one of the candidates will enjoy privileges so he doesn’t find the election fair.

However, according to activists from the Golos Association that fiercely criticized the December voting Putin scored about 55%. The  results of other candidates coincide with data from the Central Election Commission with slight deviation.

Putin’s opponents seem to be ok with the results. Zhirinovsky and Mironov have already congratulated him on the victory.