Election commission results on Monday showed that President Vladimir Putin has secured a fifth term with an overwhelming number of votes, in an election that held little suspense after the harshest crackdown on the opposition and free speech since Soviet times.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks on a visit to his campaign headquarters after a presidential election in Moscow, early Monday, March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
People hold sheets reading "enough" as they protest in downtown Tbilisi, Georgia, Sunday, March 17, 2024. Russians at home and abroad are heading to the polls for a presidential election that is all but certain to extend President Vladimir Putin's rule after he clamped down on dissent. (AP Photo/Nicolo Vincenzo Malvestuto)
Yulia Navalnaya, centre, widow of Alexey Navalny, stands in a queue with other voters at a polling station near the Russian embassy in Berlin, after noon local time, on Sunday, March 17, 2024. The Russian opposition has called on people to head to polling stations at noon on Sunday in protest as voting takes place on the last day of a presidential election that is all but certain to extend President Vladimir Putin's rule after he clamped down on dissent. AP can't confirm that all the voters seen at the polling station at noon were taking part in the opposition protest. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Russians living in Switzerland gather in front of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, March 17, 2024. The Russian opposition has called on people to head to polling stations at noon on Sunday in protest as voting takes place on the last day of a presidential election that is all but certain to extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule after he clamped down on dissent. AP can't confirm that all the voters seen at the polling station at noon were taking part in the opposition protest.’ (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)
A woman walks to cast her ballot at a polling station during a presidential election village of Chikcha, Tyumen municipal district, western Siberia, Russia, Sunday, March 17, 2024. Voters in Russia are going to the polls for the last day of a presidential election that is all but certain to extend President Vladimir Putin's rule after he clamped down on dissent. (AP Photo)
Today in history: March 18
1922: Mohandas K. Gandhi
In 1922, Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced in India to six years’ imprisonment for civil disobedience. (He was released after serving two years.)
1940: Benito Mussolini
On March 18, 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agreed to join Germany’s war against France and Britain.
1942: Milton S. Eisenhower
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing the War Relocation Authority, which was put in charge of interning Japanese-Americans, with Milton S. Eisenhower (the younger brother of Dwight D. Eisenhower) as its director.
1965: Alexei Leonov
In 1965, the first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov went outside his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether.
2012: Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney scored an overwhelming win in Puerto Rico’s Republican presidential primary, trouncing chief rival Rick Santorum.
2016: Salah Abdeslam
In 2016, police in Brussels captured Europe’s most wanted fugitive, Salah Abdeslam, who was the prime suspect in the deadly 2015 Paris attacks.
2017: Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry, rock ’n’ roll’s founding guitar hero and storyteller who defined the music’s joy and rebellion in such classics as “Johnny B. Goode,” “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Roll Over Beethoven,” died at his home west of St. Louis at age 90.
2018: Vladimir Putin
In 2018, Vladimir Putin rolled to a crushing reelection victory for six more years as Russia’s president.
2021: NBA
The NBA said it was easing some of its health and safety protocols for individuals who were fully vaccinated.
