Putin re-elected in Russia with large margin

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• MEGAN THOMPSON:

  All across Russia today, voters headed to the polls to cast their ballots in that country's presidential election. But even before the final votes are tallied, the outcome is already clear. President Vladimir Putin was re-elected to his fourth six-year-term as of 9:00 p.m. in Moscow. The turnout was just over 60%. And early returns show Putin received more than 70% of the vote in a field that technically had eight candidates. For more, I'm joined by Neil MacFarquhar, Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times via Skype from Moscow. So Neal, since there's been no real question about who is going to win this election, I understand that there's been a lot of emphasis on the number of people who would actually turn out to vote. Can you talk a little bit about what Putin's people have been doing today to make sure that there is adequate turnout?

• NEIL MACFAQUHAR:

  Well, they tried to turn the whole thing into a kind of a carnival or a festival and they left it to the local authorities how best to do it. I mean, the general theme was kind of like putting other things on the ballot like school issues to get parents to turn out for many career days at schools. Some of that it was fun stuff, like there was one clown at a polling station in Moscow who was shouting questions at questions about Russian history and if you answered them correctly you get a free chocolate bar.

• MEGAN THOMPSON:

  So what do we know about how many people did turn out and who turned out?

• NEIL MACFAQUHAR:

  The exit polls indicate that the voters skewed towards the older voters, young didn't turn out, which was kind of expected. You know, when you talk to them they kind of say you know we know what the outcome is going to be and you know who we vote for is going to have no effect on our lives, so why bother?

• MEGAN THOMPSON:

  Did Putin have any real opposition?

• NEIL MACFAQUHAR:

  Not to be allowed to run. The main candidate who sort of tried to set up a national organization run was Alexei Navalny who's the anti-corruption campaigner and the most vocal critic of the Kremlin and he was barred due to various fraud convictions that everybody thought were politically motivated. And this is a kind of funny thing because I think if Putin had run a genuine election, he probably would have won because he's very popular but he has always sort of mistrusted elections ever since he was a campaign manager for the mayor of St. Petersburg in 1996 and the mayor lost the race. And so he's had this sort of inherent distrust of the surprise of elections and never really liked them.

• MEGAN THOMPSON:

  Here in the U.S. there's obviously no shortage of news about Russia between nerve agent attack in Britain and the meddling in our elections. I mean, how are all those issues and stories playing out in Russia?

• NEIL MACFAQUHAR:

  You know, they sort of play into the narrative that Putin likes to press the Russians this besieged fortress with people trying to attack him from all sides and for all reasons. I mean, you name the poisoning attack for example, there's been zero acknowledgement and there will be none that Russian might have been responsible. It's always like, you know, west set this up to try and make him look bad right before the election. It's always this sort of idea that Russia is a scapegoat. And whenever Russia tries to get up off its knees the world as they are waiting to knock down.

• MEGAN THOMPSON:

  I know that Putin didn't really campaign much but did he promise anything for this next term?

• NEIL MACFAQUHAR:

  I think he actually attended one campaign rally and he just doesn't really like the process. And he did, you know, he sort of laid out what could be called his vision for the next six years. And he spent a lot of time talking about social programs, which of course people want to see improved in terms of pensions, medical care, etc. but he didn't specify how he would pay for it. And then he famously spent the second half of his speech just dying on all these incredible weapons that Russia had developed and you know sort of the nuclear cruise missiles and the like that could override anything the Americans have. So, it's all about that about you know sort of national security and rallying around the flag.

• MEGAN THOMPSON:

  All right. Neil MacFarquhar from the New York Times. Thank you so much.

• NEIL MACFAQUHAR:

  Anytime.