Putin storms to landslide election win

– Voting in space –

Ahead of the vote, a new crisis broke out with the West as Britain implicated Putin in the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal with a Soviet-designed nerve agent.

In response, London expelled 23 Russian diplomats, prompting a tit-for-tat move by Moscow. Also this week, Washington hit Russia with sanctions for trying to influence the 2016 US election.

Putin again dismissed claims that Russia was behind the poisoning as “drivel” but said Moscow was ready to cooperate with Britain in the probe.

Putin’s previous Kremlin term was marked by a crackdown on the opposition after huge protests, the Ukraine conflict, military intervention in Syria and the introduction of Western sanctions that contributed to a fall in living standards.

The president has said he will use his fourth term to address a litany of domestic problems including widespread poverty and poor healthcare.

“Another six years of slavery,” said a piece of paper made up to look like a ballot which was spotted on a Moscow street — in an apparent reference to Putin’s next term.

Election officials flew to far-flung regions to collect votes from indigenous herders, while cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov — the only Russian currently aboard the International Space Station — cast his ballot by proxy.