国际英语新闻:Putin Declares Victory in Russian Presidential Election

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, told the Interfax news agency that he doubts the results reflect the true will of Russians. He said the challenge now is to change Russia’s election system to make voting fair, and to restore direct election for governors.

But Stanislav Govorukhin, a Putin campaign director, rebutted these claims. He told reporters, “This was the purest election in Russia’s history.”

Accusations of fraud in the parliamentary vote sparked the largest street protests against Mr. Putin in his 12 years in power, from 2000 to 2008 as president and the last four as prime minister.

On Sunday, as polls started to close in western Russia, central Moscow looked more and more like an armed camp. Lines of police officers ringed the Kremlin. Riot police marched in formation. Dozens of gray prison trucks lined the streets.

Alleging a bomb scare, police forced a parallel vote-counting group to vacate their offices and stand on the street.

Pro-Kremlin groups occupied four central Moscow squares. Mikhail Dukhovich, a 30-year-old pro-Putin activist, was setting up for a block party on a square in front of the looming building of the state security services, formerly known as the KGB. “Vladimir Putin is the only candidate, the one and only real candidate who makes real deals, not only speaks about them like other candidates," he said.

As he spoke, city streets filled with hundreds of buses, bringing Russians from outside Moscow to the Putin victory concerts and laser shows.

Monday will be the opposition’s chance to show its strength. A mass protest is scheduled for Pushkin Square, a downtown protest point that is at the crossroads of three subway lines. As election officials announced that Mr. Putin was on the road to victory, the number of people signing up for the protest on a Facebook page jumped more than 7,000.