The official winner has not yet been announced, but when he is, there will hardly be any surprises.

Exit polls show that Acting President Vladimir Putin is practically assured of not leaving the Kremlin. Putin is the clear winner. The complicated plan that started with Boris Yeltsin_s resignation on December 31 1999 and included everything: consoling old ladies, suggesting Russia`s membership in NATO, capturing foreign spies and domestic terrorists, and especially flying combat aircraft, worked almost perfectly. The only thing that could have upset the authorities_ the simple yet effective was a low voter turnout – if more than a half of Russian voters lost their interest in the country_s political destiny, the elections would have been declared invalid. In the morning Putin had some reasons to worry, but later the Russian electorate proved sufficiently active – the average turnout for the whole of the Russian electorate was about 54%. The preoccupation and speculation over the “against all” (this is a voting option guaranteed by Russian electoral law) proved unfounded – the number of voters who chose this option is remarkably low. A low percentage of voters opting for the “against all” could have had a positive effect upon the «alternative candidate» Yavlinsky_s performance, but did not. Exit polls show that Yavlinsky managed to collect as little as 7% of the overall votes while the Communists Party_s candidate Gennady Zyuganov, did better than the opinion polls suggested. According to initial results and exit polls, comrade «Zyuga» won 28-29%. This does not really matter now – even if there is a runoff, (and exit polls show that it will not) – victory for Putin is sure. And regardless of the fact that the procedure of Inauguration has not yet been determined, we can say without doubt – Putin is the Second President of Russia.