Criticism, arrests overshadow Medvedev landslide

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

MOSCOW (AFP) — Western criticism and dozens of opposition arrests in Moscow on Monday overshadowed Dmitry Medvedev's triumph in a presidential election to replace Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Medvedev won 70.2 percent of Sunday's vote, crushing his nearest rival, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who got 17.8 percent, the central elections commission said.

Medvedev, the first deputy prime minister and head of gas monopoly Gazprom, takes over from Putin in May, when Putin will become prime minister.

But allegations that the Kremlin stage-managed the poll tarnished the landslide victory.

The sole Western observer mission present, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said the poll failed to reflect Russia's "democratic...