Landslide elections
Russian President Vladimir Putin won a landslide re-election victory on Sunday, securing 76.66 percent of the votes with nearly all the ballots counted as of early Monday.
In a rally marking the four-year anniversary of the annexation of Crimea in central Moscow that coincided with Election Day, Putin appealed for supporters to “make a breakthrough” in the “very difficult, complex tasks ahead.”
Sobchak cash
Opposition candidate Ksenia Sobchak, who gained an estimated 1.67 percent of votes in the elections, made a surprise appearance at opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s headquarters, offering for the opposition politician to align with her newly-formed political party.
“You’ve become the champion of hypocrisy,” Navalny charged during their conversation, accusing Sobchak of being offered “tons of cash” to enter the presidential race as a candidate.
Car poisoning
Russia’s former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter may have been exposed to a deadly nerve agent through their car's ventilation system, affecting up to 38 people in the English city of Salisbury, intelligence sources told the U.S. television channel ABC news.
Officials from the world's chemical weapons watchdog will arrive in Britain on Monday to investigate the samples used in the attack, Britain's foreign ministry said.
MH17 suicide
A Ukrainian fighter pilot who was temporarily blamed by Russia for the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine has committed suicide in southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian media cited family members as saying that Vladislav Voloshin, 29, was depressed and had expressed “ominous intentions” before shooting himself at his home.
Lifetime presidency
Putin joked “am I going to sit here for 100 years?” when asked about whether he planned to seek another presidential term in 2030 at a post-election press conference.
His perennial challenger Vladimir Zhirinovsky suggested that Russia had held its last presidential elections in 2018 and would emulate China’s latest move to scrap presidential term limits, effectively introducing lifetime tenure.
Cabinet reshuffle
Putin hinted at a shakeup in his cabinet at the start of his fourth term in office, saying “all the changes will be announced after the inauguration.”
“For now, I will think about what to do and how to do it,” he told reporters late Sunday.
