Russian incumbent Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been declared winner of the presidential election with 63.6 percent of the votes. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov came second with more than 17 percent of the votes.

Meanwhile, an authorised anti-Putin rally drew about 20,000 to a downtown square, but after it ended police dispersed a few hundred protesters who tried to occupy the square. Putin praised the police for acting "professionally" and said the protesters themselves had provoked the crackdown.

Vladimir Putin said, "Police are obliged, I want to emphasise this, are obliged to pursue the implementation of law. The participants of the rally took certain obligations and in the framework of the existing law, they were allowed to do anything. When they started to violate the law, and they started to do it, deliberately, publicly and openly, the police had to act in the appropriate way. And they acted very reasonably in my opinion. I do understand that a number of those taking part in the rally were pushing for force being used against them".