Russia’s voters dutifully endorsed Dmitri Medvedev as Vladimir Putin’s successor today in a presidential election boycotted by Western observers as undemocratic.

Mr Medvedev won a runaway victory in a contest carefully stage-managed by the Kremlin and in which he faced no serious opposition. Preliminary results showed him winning almost 65 per cent of the vote, with the Communist, Gennadi Zyuganov, trailing in second with 19.8 per cent.

Mr Zyuganov condemned the election as “cynical” and said that it had been marred by “mass falsification” of results. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, an anti-Western nationalist, won nearly 13 per cent, while the little-known Andrei Bogdanov of the Democratic Party got just 1.5 per cent.

Turnout was estimated at 64 per cent, amid suggestions that regional governors had been under Kremlin pressure to give Mr Medvedev a “mandate” by getting two thirds of Russia’s 100 million voters to the polls.

Don't mess with our madrigals, Vladimir

The British Council is a superb propagandist for our way of life and culture

Multimedia

• Putin's summer snaps

BACKGROUND

• Dressed to kill: Putin forces back in fashion

• President Putin and the patriarchs

• No wonder they like Putin

• Putin’s plans signal start of new nuclear race

Related Links

• Dmitri Medvedev profile

• Medvedev: I’ll pull the strings

• Beware Medvedev the bear

Many regions created a holiday atmosphere around polling stations, offering cheap food, concerts, flowers and prize draws to persuade voters to turn out. Government employees, including teachers and hospital staff, complained that officials were forcing them to vote at their workplaces to guarantee a high turnout. Some said that they had been threatened with the sack if they did not vote.

Many Russians genuinely supported Mr Medvedev, however, because he was endorsed by Mr Putin and had pledged to maintain stability by continuing his policies. Russia has enjoyed eight years of economic growth under Mr Putin and is in the midst of an oil-fuelled consumer boom.

Mr Medvedev, 42, becomes Russia’s youngest leader since Tsar Nicholas II and the first President who has not risen through the ranks of the Communist Party or the KGB secret police. He has been presented as the standard bearer of a new generation of liberally inclined Russian leaders more sympathetic to the West, in stark contrast to Mr Putin’s aggressive rhetoric of recent months. “I’m in a good mood. Spring is here. The season has changed,” he said as he cast his vote. Mr Putin declared himself in “holiday” mood as he voted.

The two men underlined their confidence by lunching at a Moscow restaurant with the outgoing Prime Minister, Viktor Zubkov, and the Speakers of Russia’s two houses of parliament. The five most powerful politicians in the land laughed and joked over a fish meal alongside children from one of the city’s orphanages.

Election watchdogs from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) cancelled their monitoring mission after complaining that restrictions imposed by Russia made their task impossible.

Fewer than 300 international observers were in Russia to monitor 96,000 polling stations across 11 times zones. Most were from former Soviet republics in the Commonwealth of Independent States, which has a history of rubber-stamping the outcome of elections regardless of any violations.

The Kremlin brushed off the criticism. Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said: “These are free and democratic elections after a free and democratic campaign.” Leaders of the liberal opposition were scathing about the election. Mikhail Kasyanov, a former Prime Minister who was barred from getting on the ballot, said: “The result doesn’t matter as this is an illegitimate transfer of power.”

Riot police surrounded Garry Kasparov, the chess champion who leads the anti-Putin coalition The Other Russia, as he carried a plastic shopping bag near Red Square bearing the words “I am not participating in this farce”.

Times Recommends

• 'New York has lost its edge'
• Copenhagen will fail – and quite right too
• More than 17,000 new underwater species found