Vladimir Putin has won Russia’s presidential election, according to exit polls.

Monitored by web cameras and a network of volunteer civilian observers, Russians voted today in presidential elections expected to return Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV has won Russia’s presidential election with more than 70% of the vote, according to final results released yesterday.

Dmitry Medvedev won a landslide victory in the election to replace his patron Vladimir Putin as Russia’s president, promising to continue on Mr Putin’s path and to appoint him prime minister.

Vladimir Putin’s handpicked successor Dmitry Medvedev was headed for an easy victory in today’s presidential election, according to an exit poll and early partial results.

Russian voters were expected to endorse Vladimir Putin’s choice of a successor in today’s presidential election, allowing Mr Putin to retain a measure of power in his nation whose wealth and global voice have grown even as democratic freedoms diminished.

Voting has begun today in Russia's presidential election that will produce a successor to Vladimir Putin.

The most vocal Kremlin critic in Russia’s presidential contest was barred from the ballot today by election authorities who said tens of thousands of signatures on his nominating petitions were faked.

President Vladimir Putin’s party won more than 60% of the vote in Russia’s parliamentary election today, an exit poll said.

The vehemently nationalist Liberal Democratic Party today named the prime suspect in the killing of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko to a top slot on its list for parliamentary candidates, Russian news reports said.

THE sole suspect in the radiation poisoning death of Kremlin foe Alexander Litvinenko has been nominated to run for parliament on a pro-Kremlin ultra-nationalist party’s ticket, its leader said yesterday.

The sole suspect in the radiation poisoning death of Kremlin foe Alexander Litvinenko has been nominated to run for parliament on a pro-Kremlin ultranationalist party’s ticket, according to a Russian news agency report today.

Russia’s lower house of parliament was today set to vote on President Vladimir Putin’s nominee for prime minister, with confirmation assured in the Kremlin-controlled chamber.

Speaking in Vilnius, Lithuania, US Vice President Dick Cheney today caused a stir in neighbouring Russia.

RUSSIAN officials yesterday furiously denied allegations linking companies and politicians to corruption in the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq, saying that the report implicating them relied upon forgeries and false statements.

HALF of the 4,500 companies in the UN oil-for-food programme, including Volvo and Daimler Chrysler, paid €1.5 billion in kickbacks and illicit surcharges to Saddam Hussein’s government, a UN report has concluded.

BRITISH MP George Galloway yesterday angrily rejected charges by the US Congress that he profited from the Iraq oil-for-food programme as “utterly preposterous”.

Ken Guggenheim, Washington

Former top officials from Saddam Hussein’s government told US congressional investigators they provided millions of dollars worth of oil allocations as a form of pay-off to Russian leaders in hopes of ending UN sanctions against Iraq, a congressional panel said.

Voter turnout in Russia’s presidential election exceeded the 50% threshold needed to make the vote valid, Russian news agencies quoted Central Election Commission chief Alexander Veshnyakov as saying hours before polls closed today.

Flamboyant nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, whose party came a strong third in Russia’s parliamentary elections, announced today that he will run for president in March.

ALLIES of President Vladimir Putin won a sweeping victory in parliamentary elections, but human rights officials condemned the vote on Monday as short of international legal requirements and a retreat from Russia’s democratic reforms.

Allies of President Vladimir Putin won a sweeping victory in Russia’s elections today but European human rights officials condemned the poll as having fallen short of international legal requirements and representing a retreat from democratic reforms.

The biggest pro-Kremlin party is set to dominate the Russian legislature after parliamentary elections tightened President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power.

The biggest pro-Kremlin party pulled far ahead of its rivals in Russia’s parliamentary elections today, with partial preliminary results suggesting President Vladimir Putin can tighten his grip over the Duma ahead of his own likely re-election bid.

Russian MPs are concerned about the risk of BSE after Moscow's mayor signed a deal with Bavarian farmers for 100,000 tonnes of beef.