Mr Medvedev’s nearest challenger, Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party received 17.76% of the vote ahead of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and Andrei Bogdanov who heads the Democratic Party. Voter turnout was high at 69.65%

Reacting to the election of Mr Medvedev, a man considered to be more pro-western than his predecessor, Annemie Neyts, ELDR Party President commented, “I wait to see whether the election of President Medvedev will facilitate the improvement and strengthening of EU-Russia relations.

“There has been an emerging democratic deficit in Russia over recent years, highlighted by the prevention of opposition candidates from having equal access to the media during this election campaign and that of the parliamentary elections held in December 2007. I sincerely hope, and indeed urge, President Medvedev to address these issues as a mater of priority during his presidency” added Neyts.

Speaking at a recent conference organised by ELDR, Galina Michaleva, Head of the Political Department at ELDR Russian member party, Yabloko, stated that political debate and free speech are limited in Russia with the emergence of a one party democracy and civil society organisations increasingly being restricted in their activities by government regulation.

Mikhail Kasyanov, former Prime Minister, considered to be the only liberal candidate, was blocked from standing in the election after the electoral authorities said too many of his signatures of support were invalid. In a by now predictable scenario, his appeal was rejected.