BBC在线收听下载:普京赢得俄总统选举

This is the BBC News. Hello, I'm Jonathan Izard.

President Putin has held his victory in the Russian Presidential election as an expression of hope and trust. Appearing at a mass rally in central Moscow, he appealed to the crowds for national unity. He said it was important for Russia to be able to move forward and do work as one team. With most of the ballots counted, Mr. Putin is on course to win 3 quarters of the vote. But the turnout at 64%, was lower than the Kremlin had hoped for. From Moscow, here is Sarah Rainsford.

The result was no surprise, but Mr. Putin told the crowds waving flags below that this was a vote of confidence in him and in their great country. The Kremlin had been anxious for turnout to be high today. So, there was all sorts of entertainment at the polling stations from music to giant chess games. He is all meant to lure all people in to vote, but this was a ballot with no real competition after Russia's most popular opposition figure Alexei Navalny was barred from the race. Vladimir Putin is popular here though when many voters say he's made Russia stronger again and blamed the west for the new crisis in relations.

Speaking at a news conference, Mr. Putin made his first detailed comments about the poisoning of the Russia double agent and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury. He said it was nonsense to suggest Russia was behind the attack and cast doubt on the British government's discretion that it was carried out with the nerve agent Novichok.

In relation to the tragedy that you mentioned, I learned about it from the media and the first thing came to my mind is that if it was military operation, people would have died straight away. This is number one. Secondly, Russia doesn't have those weapons. Russia has demolished all its chemical weapons under the international supervision.

US politicians, including Republican Senators have warned President Trump against trying to shut down the special counsel investigation into claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Donald Trump's personal lawyer has called for an end to the inquiry.

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