After preordained election, Putin claims vote proves public support for his policies

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday thanked Russians for casting ballots in a presidential vote in which he cemented his grip on the country for another six years after the harshest crackdown on dissent since Soviet times.

Any public criticism of Putin or his war in Ukraine has been stifled, independent media have been crippled, Putin's fiercest political foe, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month and other opposition activists are either in jail or in exile. Western leaders denounced the election as a sham.

“It means support for the country’s political and economic course, our common achievements that, of course, should be even greater but even now make Russia stronger and more independent,” he said.