WORLD BRIEFING / RUSSIA
An election official said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s party candidate had won the mayoral vote in the resort of Sochi, host to the 2014 Winter Olympics. An opposition candidate called the vote a fraud.
Sochi Election Commission Chairman Yuri Rykov said a count of ballots from four-fifths of the city’s electoral districts gave acting Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov more than 76%. Pakhomov was nominated by Putin’s United Russia party.
Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov accused authorities of pressuring vulnerable state workers to vote for Pakhomov in early balloting before election day.
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