He faced seven minor candidates on the ballot. Putin's most vehement and visible foe, anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, was rejected as a candidate because he was convicted of fraud in a case widely regarded as politically motivated.

Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin placed second with 11.2%.

As we detailed earlier, Vladimir Putin is expected to win by a landslide in today's Russian election. As both prime minister and president, he is the second longest serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin who was in power for 10,636 days.