MOSCOW — The Latest on the re-election of Vladimir Putin as Russian president (all times local):

Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked Russians for re-electing him, promising to foster economic growth and solve social problems.

In a live televised speech Putin, who won nearly 77 in Sunday's vote, said he wanted to express gratitude to the Russians for his strongest ever electoral victory.

He said Friday that the powerful support was particularly important now, when the country faces domestic and external challenges.

Putin said that the country needs to make a "real breakthrough" in many spheres and move to encourage economic growth, raise living standards, modernize health care, revive the infrastructure and solve environmental and other problems. He emphasized that Russia needs to make a "technological leap" to meet those challenges.

Russian electoral officials have officially declared incumbent President Vladimir Putin the winner of last Sunday's election.

The Central Election Commission on Friday issued final results, showing that Putin won nearly 77 of the vote. Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin came second with nearly 12 .

The vote was tainted by widespread reports of ballot-box stuffing and forced voting. Ella Pamfilova, chairwoman of the Election Commission, said at the commission's session on Friday that the vote was free and fair.

Sunday's win will keep Putin in office until 2024.</s>President Trump is not the only U.S. president to congratulate Russia's Vladimir Putin after an election win.

Trump was harshly criticized this week by Republicans such as Sen. John McCain for his call to Putin on Tuesday over the Russian leader's victory in an election many deemed unfair.

"An American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections," said McCain, R-Ariz., who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.

However, former president Barack Obama also wished Putin well after the Russian election on March 4, 2012.

Obama called Putin five days after the vote, “to congratulate him on his recent victory,” according to an official readout of the call.

More: Putin elected as Russia's president for another six-year term

More: What you didn't know about Russian President Putin

That call also came after the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) reported problems with the election. Apart from an uneven media playing field, the vote count lacked transparency, which contributed to allegations of widespread fraud leveled by Putin’s political opponents, according to the OSCE report.

Former president George W. Bush also called Dmitry Medvedev in 2008, after the newly elected Russian president succeeded Putin. Medvedev then named Putin as his prime minister. Russian media reported that Bush congratulated Medvedev, but the White House did not confirm their accounts.

The Bush White House had expressed concerns about that vote even before it occurred. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said at the time that Bush “did what he routinely does with lots of presidents-elect around the world, which is call to say: ‘Thank you for taking my call and I look forward to working with you,’” according to Reuters.

The most recent Russian election was marred by “a lack of genuine competition” and a media environment that created “an uneven playing field,” according to the OSCE, which monitored the vote.

Election monitors also reported “irregularities” that included “secrecy and procedural shortcomings that reduced transparency of counting,” and that popular would-be challengers were barred from running altogether.

At the State Department this week, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said it was "no surprise" that Putin was re-elected, adding that some people were paid to turn out to vote and opposition leaders were intimidated or jailed.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential campaign and whether Trump’s campaign staff colluded with Russian efforts to influence the U.S. vote.

McCain said Trump’s call was an insult to “every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country's future.”

Trump defended himself on Twitter, saying "Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing," and that Russia can help the U.S. with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, the Islamic State, Iran and to prevent a looming arms race.</s>Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked his voters for their "unprecedented support" after the nation's electoral body published the final tally of the presidential vote on Friday. According to the data, the Sunday election saw Putin win nearly 76.7 percent of the vote and secure another six-year-term.

In a televised speech, Putin said he was "well aware" of the problems facing Russian citizens, including dropping incomes, gaps in healthcare provision, and issues with housing and utilities.

"We need a real breakthrough," he said. "I understand my colossal responsibility to Russian citizens, to the country."

"What we need is consequential, deep-seated change, thought-out moves that bring about steady positive results," Putin added.

The Russian president, who has been the nation's most powerful politician since 2000, pledged to create more jobs, fight poverty, develop infrastructure and education, as well as boost the development of "cities and villages."

"All of this will be based on a mighty leap in technology which we are about to make," Putin said, without providing details.

'We are all patriots'

Sunday's election saw Putin score an easy victory against his competitors, with the runner-up Pavel Grudinin of the Communist Party winning less than 12 percent of the vote, and the ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky placing third with 5.65 percent. Putin's best-known pro-Western rival, Alexei Navalny, was barred from running over a fraud case. The young opposition leader claims the charges had been trumped-up.

Putin urged his political opponents to cooperate with his efforts to improve Russia, saying that the move needed to have a "nationwide character and unite everyone."

"Yes, criticisms, arguments, discussions are necessary, but they there should be no place for irresponsible populism," he said. "The main orientation point for everyone, today most of all, should be in the national interest and for the benefit of the people."

Read more: What you need to know about the Russian presidential election

He added that he respected the voters who did not support him, but emphasized that "political preferences should not divide us."

"We are all patriots of our country," he said.

Vladimir Putin came to power as a successor to Russia's first post-Soviet president Boris Yeltsin. He has effectively remained the most powerful man in Russia since, including his stint as prime minister between 2008 and 2012. His most recent election success makes him the longest-serving Russian ruler since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.</s>Trump says he gets along 'very, very well' with Putin

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017. Photo by Reuters/Carlos Barria

U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview Wednesday that he has a good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, after the two met for more than two hours in Hamburg last week.

"People said, 'Oh, they shouldn't get along.' Well, who are the people that are saying that? I think we get along very, very well," Trump told evangelical Christian leader Pat Robertson on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

"We are a tremendously powerful nuclear power, and so are they. It doesn't make sense not to have some kind of a relationship," Trump said.

Trump, who has come under criticism for his reluctance to criticize Putin directly over Russia's meddling in U.S. elections last year, said the two had an "excellent meeting" on the sidelines of the G20 summit last Friday.

"One thing we did is we had a ceasefire in a major part of Syria where there was tremendous bedlam and tremendous killing," he told Robertson, according to a partial transcript released by CBN.

"The ceasefire has held for four days.... That's because President Putin and President Trump made the deal, and it's held."

Trump said that he felt Putin would have preferred Hillary Clinton win last year's election -- even though US intelligence says the Russian leader directed a covert effort to help defeat the Democrat.

"We are the most powerful country in the world and we are getting more and more powerful because I'm a big military person. As an example, if Hillary had won, our military would be decimated," Trump said.

"That's why I say, why would he want me? Because from day one I wanted a strong military, he doesn't want to see that."

On Saturday, Putin told reporters he had hopes for the bilateral relationship after meeting Trump.

"The Trump that you see on TV is very different than the real Trump," Putin told reporters at the G20 in Germany.

"He perfectly understands whom he is talking to and answers questions quickly. I think personal relations were established."</s>MOSCOW — The Latest on the re-election of Vladimir Putin as Russian president (all times local):

Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked Russians for re-electing him, promising to foster economic growth and solve social problems.

In a live televised speech Putin, who won nearly 77 per cent in Sunday’s vote, said he wanted to express gratitude to the Russians for his strongest ever electoral victory.

He said Friday that the powerful support was particularly important now, when the country faces domestic and external challenges.

Putin said that the country needs to make a “real breakthrough” in many spheres and move to encourage economic growth, raise living standards, modernize health care, revive the infrastructure and solve environmental and other problems. He emphasized that Russia needs to make a “technological leap” to meet those challenges.

Russian electoral officials have officially declared incumbent President Vladimir Putin the winner of last Sunday’s election.

The Central Election Commission on Friday issued final results, showing that Putin won nearly 77 per cent of the vote. Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin came second with nearly 12 per cent.

The vote was tainted by widespread reports of ballot-box stuffing and forced voting. Ella Pamfilova, chairwoman of the Election Commission, said at the commission’s session on Friday that the vote was free and fair.

Sunday’s win will keep Putin in office until 2024.</s>President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his election win in a “very good call,” despite escalating tensions over the Kremlin’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election and poisoning of a former Russian spy in the U.K., a close U.S. ally.

The call came one day after the White House said there were no plans to congratulate Mr. Putin, who easily won a presidential election Sunday in which he faced no real competition. Both leaders have spoken of a desire for better...</s>WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Donald Trump said he congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin for winning reelection earlier this month, provoking a strong rebuke from GOP Sen. John McCain.

Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said that he congratulated Putin — a figure who has loomed over his administration because of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election — on winning another term. The result of the election, however, was never in doubt, given Putin’s autocratic stranglehold on power.

Trump’s decision to congratulate Putin on his electoral win drew consternation from McCain who said that “an American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections.”

“And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country’s future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin’s regime,” McCain added.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders later said that two key issues — Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and accusations that Russia used a nerve agent to poison a former Russian spy in the United Kingdom — likely did not come up during the call, but disagreed with McCain’s criticism.

“We don’t get to dictate how other countries operate. Putin has been elected in their country and it not something we can dictate to them how they operate,” Sanders said.

Late in the day, it leaked that the president either ignored or didn’t read a memo from his National Security Team that said, in caps, “DO NOT CONGRATULATE”. Trump was said to be “furious” about the leak. It was unclear if he read the memo.

Trump did tell reporters that he would meet with Putin in the “not too distant future.”

“I had a call with President Putin and congratulated him on the victory, his electoral victory,” Trump said during his meeting with Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. “The call had to do also with the fact that we will probably get together in the not too distant future so that we can discuss arms, we can discuss the arms race.”

Trump said the call was “very good” and added that a meeting could focus on Ukraine, Syria, North Korea and other issues.

“So, I think probably we will be seeing president Putin in the not too distant future,” he said.

Sanders told reporters after the call that there are “no specific plans made at this time” for a possible meeting between Trump and Putin.

The official White House statement on the phone call said that the two leaders discussed “the state of bilateral relations and resolved to continue dialogue about mutual national security priorities and challenges” and the importance of “denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.”

Sanders was pressed on Trump’s call with Putin, but said that the White House believes maintaining a relationship with Putin is worth it, despite some outstanding issues.

“I don’t believe it came up on this specific call but it is something that we have spoken extensively about and continue to look at ways and steps forward to make sure it never happens again,” Sanders said of election meddling. She later said that she didn’t believe that Russia’s use of a nerve agent came up, either.

In addition to McCain, Trump was slammed by many Democrats but many Republicans as well including Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn and Susan Collins of Maine, to name just a few.

Trump is not the first commander in chief to call Putin to congratulate him on winning reelection. President Barack Obama called the Russian leader in 2012 and, according to a White House readout, congratulated him on winning his last reelection campaign.

Any interactions between Trump and Putin are closely watched given the ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The issue has loomed over the administration since Trump took office last year and has infuriated the President.

Trump and Putin last met in Vietnam during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The two did not hold a formal meeting, but they did informally talk a number of times during the two-day summit. The talks, while brief, looked friendly.

The two formally met in July at the G-20 in Hamburg, Germany. After the meeting, a diplomatic dust-up immediately broke out over whether Trump accepted Putin’s assurances there was no Russian involvement in the 2016 election.

The Kremlin also said on Tuesday that Trump congratulated Putin on his win during their call and the leaders spoke “in favor of developing practical cooperation in various areas, including in ensuring strategic stability and combating international terrorism. In particular they underlined the importance of coordinated efforts to limit an arms race.”</s>Trump Congratulates Putin On Russia Election Win Against Advice Of Advisers

President Donald Trump reportedly ignored the guidance of advisers when he sent Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulations on his re-election.</s>
• President Donald Trump defended his decision to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday for his lopsided victory in the country's election last week.
• Trump said the "fake news media" was "crazed" over his comments because it wanted him to "excoriate" Putin, but added that getting along with Russia "is a good thing, not a bad thing."
• The comment is the latest indication of the president's unwillingness to confront Putin on Russia's increasingly authoritarian image and aggression against the West.

President Donald Trump took to Twitter to publicly address blowback over his decision to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin during a phone call on his victory in the country's election last week.

"I called President Putin of Russia to congratulate him on his election victory (in past, Obama called him also)," Trump tweeted Wednesday. "The Fake News Media is crazed because they wanted me to excoriate him. They are wrong! Getting along with Russia (and others) is a good thing, not a bad thing......."

The White House said Tuesday that Trump limited conversation with Putin to "shared topics" on which the US and Russia could find common ground, like Ukraine, Syria, and North Korea. Trump said the call with Putin was "a very good call," and he added that he would be meeting with the Russian leader "in the not-too-distant future."

The Washington Post reported Tuesday evening that advisers included a warning in Trump's briefing materials before the call, which said in all caps: "DO NOT CONGRATULATE" Putin on winning the Russian election last week.

They also instructed him to condemn Putin for the chemical attack on a former Russian spy in the UK, which both the US and UK said was ordered by the Kremlin.

It's unclear whether Trump viewed all of the briefing materials.

Trump apparently did not follow either suggestion. Nor did he press Putin on Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

On Sunday, Putin won more than 75% of the vote in Russia's presidential election, securing him at least another six years in power. There have been allegations of ballot-stuffing during the election, and election monitors were harassed and intimidated in the run-up to the vote.

Trump's decision to congratulate Putin on his victory prompted immediate criticism from lawmakers who are more hawkish toward Russia, like Arizona Sen. John McCain.

"An American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections," he said in a statement.

"President Trump has insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country's future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin's regime," the statement continued.

Meanwhile, Trump's decision to ignore his advisers' guidance and congratulate Putin — and to later defend the move — adds another layer to an emerging portrait in which the US president has demonstrated a reluctance to confront the Russian leader amid an ongoing investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to tilt the 2016 election in his favor.

Former CIA Director John Brennan told MSNBC Wednesday morning that he was baffled by Trump's unwillingness to push back against Putin.

"I think he's afraid of the president of Russia," Brennan said. "I think one can speculate as to why, that the Russians may have something on him personally that they could always roll out and make his life more difficult."

Brennan added that while it was important for the US and Russia to see improved relations, "the fact that he's had this fawning attitude toward Mr. Putin, has not said anything negative about him, continues to say to me that he has something to fear."

A White House official told Axios on Wednesday, "This is the way Trump is. If he's doing business with you or working with you in some way, he's going to congratulate you."

The official added that the notion that Trump is soft on Russia "is crap." At the same time, they said, "he doesn't want his personal relationship [with Putin] to be acrimonious," and that Trump needs to connect to Putin on a "personal, leader-to-leader level" to rebuild US-Russia relations.</s>Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted an invitation from his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir to visit the North African country, Sudan’s state news agency said on Thursday.

Putin, fresh from an election victory granting him his fourth term and extending his leadership of Russia by six years, called Bashir on Thursday to discuss bilateral relations, SUNA said.

Bashir congratulated Putin who affirmed his country’s commitment to investing in Sudan’s energy, oil, gas, and gold mining sectors.

The president extended an invitation to the Russian president to visit Sudan and discuss developing relations and building a strategic partnership and Putin accepted the invitation.

“The president extended an invitation to the Russian president to visit Sudan and discuss developing relations and building a strategic partnership and Putin accepted the invitation,” SUNA said. It provided no date for the visit.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for genocide and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s Darfur region, and is mostly shunned by Western leaders.

Sudan will sign a “roadmap” with Russia to build nuclear power stations during a visit to Moscow by Khartoum’s electricity minister, SUNA reported earlier this month.

REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin accepts an invitation to visit Sudan from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.