Communist Party candidate Nikolay Kharitonov is the runner-up with 4.32%
Ria Novosti reports: the total turnout, according to the data at 20:37 was 74.22%
Putin's preliminary result is a record in the history of modern Russia. In 2018, he gained 76.69% in the presidential elections, in 2012, 63.6%. Dmitry Medvedev won in 2008 with the result of 70.28%. In 2004 and 2000, Putin was in the lead from 71.31% and 52.9%, respectively. In 1996 Boris Yeltsin won [rigged with help of US] the second round with the result of 53.82%.
For comparison, here are the results of the previous election:
My initial thoughts: this is an impressive result if not exactly what we communists would prefer, but it was to be expected that Putin would win, and do so convincingly with even more votes than he got in any previous elections due to the "rally around the flag" effect during a war and things generally going very well for Russia at the moment, both domestically in terms of the economy and geopolitically.
For us as communists we can at least be glad that the Communist Party came in second again, though we would much prefer to see a result like that of 2018 (or better) where the lead over the third place is more convincing. Still it is more than what communist parties get in almost any western country, and at an unusually high voter turnout of around 75% this still means that between 3 and 4 million people voted for communists.
Putin was never going to be defeated but this shows that communists in Russia need to step up their game if they want to continue to have political leverage to use in advancing working class interests. Putin will most likely leave the political scene come the end of this next six year term he just won, and it is necessary that by then the communists will have built up their strength, organizing and winning the trust of the people by fighting for their interests.
Participating in bourgeois electoralism is of course not the most productive avenue for communists to advance our goals but as Lenin explained it should also not be entirely excluded as a method of struggle in the right circumstances. The situation in Russia is currently one in which i believe those circumstances exist, unlike in the West where this is generally a rather pointless endeavor at the moment and our efforts are better spent elsewhere.
That Pavel Grudinin guy sure looks a lot like reincarnated Stalin.
If only...