Putin Declares Victory in Russian Presidential Election

 　　Vladimir Putin has claimed victory in Russia’s presidential election, putting him on track to rule Russia through 2018.

　　With only one third of the votes counted in Russia's Presidential election, Vladimir Putin bounded up the steps of a stage in front of the Kremlin and faced a sea of Russian flags and a massive crowd estimated by police at 110,000 people. "We won," he said.

　　Early returns and two nationwide exit polls give Vladimir Putin a comfortable victory in his quest for a record third term as president.

　　The VTsIOM poll gave him 58 percent, the FOM poll gave him 59 percent and one-half of ballots¹ cast gave him 64 percent.

　　Mr. Putin needs more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a second-round runoff against one of his rivals.

　　The polls and returns indicate that the Communist Party candidate, Gennady Zyuganov, will come in second. Third place will go to Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire standard-bearer of Russia’s newly restive² urban middle class.

　　Zyuganov denounced the election in a stinging 10-minute tirade³ broadcast nationally. The communist leader called the elections “illegitimate, unfair and not transparent⁴.”

　　Prokhorov also called the elections unfair, saying “I deliberately⁵ agreed to play by someone else’s rules.”

　　The website of Golos, an independent watchdog agency, registered more than 3,000 complaints of alleged⁶ voting law violations⁷.

　　Charges included “carousel” voting, which involved busing voters from one polling station to another to cast absentee ballots. Others complained of doctored voting lists. One woman in Siberia complained that she found that her dead family members had cast ballots Sunday.

　　According to others, pro-Kremlin business leaders installed voting booths in factories, pressuring workers to vote for Mr. Putin.

　　As polls started to close in European Russia, Grigory Melkonyants, spokesman for Golos, spoke⁸ to VOA. He said that if the elections had been clean, Mr. Putin would have had to face a second round. But, he said, the volume of fraud complaints was as high this time as in the parliamentary elections three months ago.

　　Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet⁹ 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, rebutted¹⁰ these claims. He told reporters, “This was the purest election in Russia’s history.”

　　Accusations¹¹ 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.

　　Alleging¹² 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 activist¹³, was setting up for a block party on a square in front of the looming¹⁴ building of the state security services, formerly¹⁵ 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.

1 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 restive   

adj.不安宁的，不安静的

参考例句：

• The government has done nothing to ease restrictions and manufacturers are growing restive.政府未采取任何措施放松出口限制,因此国内制造商变得焦虑不安。
• The audience grew restive.观众变得不耐烦了。

3 tirade   

n.冗长的攻击性演说

参考例句：

• Her tirade provoked a counterblast from her husband.她的长篇大论激起了她丈夫的强烈反对。
• He delivered a long tirade against the government.他发表了反政府的长篇演说。

4 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

5 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

6 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

7 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

10 rebutted   

v.反驳，驳回( rebut的过去式和过去分词 )；击退

参考例句：

• Has Mr. Chiang or any member of his party ever rebutted this? 蒋先生及其党人曾经对这话提出过任何驳斥吗？ 来自互联网
• He rebutted the argument of the other team in a debate. 他在辩论会中反驳对方的论点。 来自互联网

11 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

12 alleging   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• His reputation was blemished by a newspaper article alleging he'd evaded his taxes. 由于报上一篇文章声称他曾逃税，他的名誉受到损害。
• This our Peeress declined as unnecessary, alleging that her cousin Thornhill's recommendation would be sufficient. 那位贵人不肯，还说不必，只要有她老表唐希尔保荐就够了。

13 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

14 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望

15 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。