'Pseudo-election': European leaders condemn Putin's victory

EU and several European leaders have blasted Putin's election victory in Russia. 

In a statement, the European Union said it regretted that Russia had not invited international observers to monitor the vote. 

Russian voters had been denied an ''impartial and independent'' assessment of the elections, it added. 

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the vote a ''pseudo-election'', while the Polish Foreign Ministry described them as being neither ''legal, free or fair.'.

Vladimir Putin won a fifth term as president in a landslide election victory that had an all but certain outcome. 

Russia's number one faced no credible opposition candidates, amid a ruthless crackdown on dissent and critical voices.  

Russian election officials said Putin - who will now serve another six-year term on top of his nearly quarter-century rule - won more than 87% of the vote. 

Putin claimed Russia's democratic system was more transparent than many in the West, scorning US democracy. 

The first day of voting was marred by sporadic protests and acts of vandalism, including arson attacks on polling stations and the destruction of ballot boxes. There was no repeat of these incidents after Friday. 

At least 80 Russians were detained over the three-day vote, according to the monitoring group OVD-Info. 

With little room for protest, supporters of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny crowded outside polling stations at 12:00 on Sunday as a form of symbolic protest. 

Putin hailed the early results as an indication of “trust” and “hope” in him, while Western countries criticised the vote. 

His victory speech focused on the war in Ukraine, as Russia's president said his main task would be securing the border from Ukrainian raids and  “strengthening