Monday, March 3, 2008

Dmitry Medvedev, age 42, has won the presidential election in Russia and is expected to take office on May 7, 2008, replacing Vladimir Putin who has served two 4-year presidential terms since 2000.

The elections were held on Sunday, March 2, and participation among registered voters was 69.65%. On Monday morning, Russian Central Election Commission announced that almost all of the votes were counted with Medvedev receiving 70.21% of votes that were cast. In second place was Communist Party leader Gennady Zuyganov with 17.77%, followed by Liberal Democrat Vladimir Zhirinovsky with 9.37%, and Democratic Party candidate Andrey Bogdanov who got 1.29% percent of the votes.

Medvedev is Putin’s announced “successor”. Medvedev has repeatedly promised to continue the political course of the current Russian government. Medvedev officially ran as an independent but was endorsed by United Russia, Fair Russia and other political parties.

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