Putin extends rule in preordained Russian election after harshest crackdown since Soviet era

By EMMA BURROWS, DASHA LITVINOVA and JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press

President Vladimir Putin has extended his reign over Russia in a landslide election whose outcome was never in doubt, declaring his determination to advance deeper into Ukraine and dangling new threats against the West. After the harshest crackdown on dissent since Soviet times, it was clear from the earliest returns that Putin’s nearly quarter-century rule would continue with a fifth term that grants him six more years in power. Still, Russians heeded a call to protest Putin’s repression and his war in Ukraine by showing up at polling stations at noon on Sunday. With nearly all the precincts counted Monday, election officials said Putin had secured a record number of votes.