Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation Ella Pamfilova said that the turnout for the Russian presidential elections has become unprecedentedly high.

“As of 10:00, 87 million 113 thousand 127 of our respected voters took part in these elections.

That is, for the first time we have a record turnout, unprecedented, it has never happened before, it is 77.44%,” Pamfilova said at a meeting of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation on Monday, March 18.

She also noted that more than 76 million people voted for the current President Vladimir Putin, which was also a record figure.

In 2018, about 56 million Russians voted for Putin.

According to the Central Election Commission, after counting 100% of the votes, Vladimir Putin received the support of 87.28% of voters.

Second place goes to Nikolai Kharitonov from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (4.31%), third place goes to Vladislav Davankov from the New People party (3.85%), fourth place goes to Leonid Slutsky from the Liberal Democratic Party (3.20%).

As Pamfilova noted, three days of voting took place under conditions of external aggressive influence, to which Russia has already become accustomed: it has always been recorded in elections in the country.

“But the degree of external influence on the elections this time, the desire to, if not disrupt, then discredit them, was unprecedented,” she said.

Pamfilova noted that in the West they tried to reduce turnout in the presidential elections using intimidation methods.

In this regard, she mentioned Kyiv’s attempts to attack the border territories of the Russian Federation.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry also drew attention to the increased terrorist activity of the Kyiv regime against the backdrop of the three-day presidential elections in Russia.

Nevertheless, the Foreign Ministry expressed confidence that residents of the regions bordering Ukraine will not be afraid to cast their vote.

According to the Central Election Commission, in the Belgorod region, which was subjected to new shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a voter turnout of over 87% was recorded.

In addition, Pamfilova noted that since the beginning of the presidential election campaign, more than 12 million cyber attacks have been recorded, which is 150 times more than usual.

Along with this, the head of the Central Election Commission mentioned the West’s attempts to impose the myth of unfree elections in Russia.

“We are convinced that our country is free, with free will.

And the people, especially now, are highly educated (we have a high level of education), do not tolerate either internal or external pressure on them,” Pamfilova said.

Among other things, Pamfilova announced the final meeting of the Central Election Commission on the presidential elections, which will take place at 11:00 on Thursday, March 21.

The head of the Central Election Commission also stated that during this event she will talk in detail about the techniques and technologies with the help of which attempts were made to discredit the Russian presidential elections.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin also commented on assessments made in the United States about the allegedly unfree status of the past elections in Russia.

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov stated his categorical disagreement with this point of view.

He recalled that Putin had previously called such assessments expected.

“De facto, the United States of America is a country deeply involved in the war in Ukraine.

And a country that, in fact, is de facto at war with us.

Other assessments, of course, could hardly be expected,” Peskov said in a conversation with reporters.

Peskov called the point of view about the illegitimacy of the elections absurd.

According to him, in this case, “we need to talk about the illegitimacy of those 87 percent of the votes of the population of our country that were cast for President Putin.”