Putin wins Russia election in landslide with record turnout, early results show

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia‘s on Sunday, cementing his grip on power though thousands of opponents staged a noon protest at polling stations and the United States said the vote was neither free nor fair.
For Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who first rose to power in 1999, the result is intended to underscore to the West that its leaders will have to reckon with an emboldened Russia, whether in war or in peace, for many more years to…