Vladimir Putin’s re-election was never in doubt. And following last night’s result in which the Russian president won 76 per cent of the vote, Russia is now facing the prospect of six more years of Putin in charge – making Putin the longest serving Russian leader since Stalin.
The Russian president’s ‘gangster state is an affront to democracy’, says the Sun, which urges Theresa May to continue her ‘hardline stance’ against the country. The PM’s reaction to the Salisbury poisoning has been ‘spot on’ so far, says the paper, which says it is high time that we ‘take the threat’ of Putin’s regime ‘very seriously’. So what should the government do now after Russia retaliated by booting out 23 British diplomats? ‘Putin’s wealthy pals in London’ should have their cash ‘closely scrutinised’, says the paper. After all, doing so would ultimately hurt Putin and mean that he feels ‘the humiliation of his cronies.’
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