Medvedev wins Russian election with 70.23 pct

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Dmitry Medvedev has won 70.23 percent of the vote in Russia’s presidential election with 99.45 percent of the ballots counted, giving him an easy first round victory, preliminary results showed on Monday.

Russia’s Central Electoral Commission chief, Vladimir Churov, told reporters that Medvedev’s nearest challenger, Communist Gennady Zyuganov, won 17.76 percent of the votes.

Turnout was 69.65 percent, he added.