Vladimir Putin to lead Russia for another six years
Moscow: Russians voted on Sunday in an election that saw Vladimir Putin virtually secure an expected victory in the presidential election by winning 75.91 per cent of votes with 70 per cent of ballots counted, preliminary data from the Central Election Commission (CEC) showed.
So far, Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin got 13.39 per cent of the vote, while head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky received 6.34 per cent, reports Xinhua.
In a short speech to thousands of supporters near Red Square late on Sunday, Putin thanked people who voted for him, saying that his election result was "very decent."
As of 1500 GMT, the voter turnout stood at 59.93 per cent, slightly up from 58.3 percent in 2012, Xinhua quoted the CEC as saying.
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India, China decide to resume Kailash Mansarovar Yatra
New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI): India and China on Monday decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra as the two sides agreed to take certain people-centric steps to "stabilise and rebuild" ties.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said this following Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri's talks with his Chinese counterpart Sun Weidong in Beijing.
It said the two sides also agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries.
"As agreed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at their meeting in Kazan in October, the two sides reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relations comprehensively and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to stabilize and rebuild ties," the MEA said.
"In this context, the two sides decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in the summer of 2025," it said.
The MEA said the two sides also agreed to hold an early meeting of the India-China expert level mechanism to discuss resumption of provision of hydrological data and other cooperation pertaining to trans-border rivers.
It said the two sides agreed to take appropriate measures to further promote and facilitate people-to-people exchanges, including media and think-tank interactions.
"They agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries; the relevant technical authorities on the two sides will meet and negotiate an updated framework for this purpose at an early date," the MEA said.
