| President Vladimir Putin easily won a second term in elections Sunday with 69 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll, confirming widespread expectations of a landslide victory. The poll, conducted by the non-governmental Public Opinion Foundation, surveyed 120,000 voters at 1,200 polling stations. With 21.5 percent of precincts accounted for, Putin had 68 percent of the vote, Central Election Commission chief Alexander Veshnyakov said. Ninety minutes before polls closed in heavily populated western Russia, electoral officials said that 61.18 percent of voters nationwide had cast ballots. Once the turnout exceeded 50 percent, the election was considered valid. |