MOSCOW - Vladimir Putin scored a decisive victory in Russia's presidential election Sunday to return to the Kremlin and extend his hold on power for six more years. His eyes brimming with tears, he defiantly proclaimed to a sea of supporters that they had triumphed over opponents intent on "destroying Russia's statehood and usurping power."

Putin's win was never in doubt as many across the vast country still see him as a guarantor of stability and the defender of a strong Russia against a hostile world, an image he has carefully cultivated during 12 years in power.
Communist Party candidate Gennady Zyuganov was a distant second, followed by Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire owner of the New Jersey Nets whose candidacy was approved by the Kremlin in what was seen as an effort to channel some of the protest sentiment. The clownish nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and socialist Sergei Mironov trailed behind. The leader of the liberal opposition Yabloko party was barred from the race.

"These elections are not free. ... That's why we'll have protests tomorrow. We will not recognize the president as legitimate," said Mikhail Kasyanov, who was Putin's first prime minister before going into opposition.

The wave of protests began after a December parliamentary election in which observers produced evidence of widespread vote fraud. Protest rallies in Moscow drew tens of thousands in the largest outburst of public anger in post-Soviet Russia, demonstrating growing exasperation with the pervasive corruption and tight controls over political life under Putin, who was president from 2000 to 2008 before moving into the prime minister's office due to term limits.
Alexei Navalny, one of the opposition's most charismatic leaders, said observers trained by his organization also reported seeing carousel voting and other violations.

A first-round victory was politically important for Putin, serving as proof that he retains majority support.

"They decided that a second round would be bad, unreliable and would show weakness," Navalny said. "That's why they ... falsified the elections."

There was no evidence that the scale of any election fraud was high enough to have pushed Putin over the 50 percent mark and saved him from a runoff.

Putin's campaign chief, Stanislav Govorukhin, rejected the claims of violations, calling them "ridiculous."

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, has become increasingly critical of Putin's rule. "These are not going to be honest elections, but we must not relent," he said after casting his ballot.

Putin has dismissed the protesters' demands, casting them as a coddled minority of urban elites manipulated by leaders working at the behest of the West. His claims that the United States was behind the protests spoke to his base of blue-collar workers, farmers and state employees, who are suspicious of Western intentions after years of state propaganda.
Full:
http://m.cbsnews.com/fullstory.rbml?catid=57390300&feed_id=0&videofeed=36
Putin got more than 90 percent of the vote in several Caucasus provinces, including 99.8 percent in Chechnya.
?!?!?!?

Police break up anti-Putin protest in Moscow.
http://m.yahoo.com/w/news_america/police-break-anti-putin-protest-moscow-182103230.html?orig_host_hdr=news.yahoo.com&.intl=us&.lang=en-us
The opposition protests were planned well in advance, but they gained justification earlier Monday when election monitoring missions sent by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe both concluded that Sunday’s presidential election had been unfair, with state resources used to ensure Mr. Putin’s easy victory.