DUSHANBE, March 5, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- On Monday March 5, President Emomali Rahmon congratulated Vladimir Putin on a landslide victory in Russia’s presidential election that took place on March 4, the Tajik presidential press service reports.

In his message, Tajik leader, in particular, notes that the Russian people’s will is evidence of a wide support of the population for Putin’s policy aimed at further development and modernization of Russian society and rise in Russia’s prestige on international arena.

Rahmon also noted that Tajikistan was ready to take efforts to give a new impulse to further expansion of Tajik-Russian cooperation.  

We will recall that preliminary results announced Monday showed Putin getting more than 63 percent of the vote against four challengers. 

Meanwhile, monitors with the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) have said that Russia''s presidential elections were “clearly skewed” in favor of the winner, Vladimir Putin.  In a statement, the OSCE said there was while all candidates had been able to campaign freely, there had been "serious problems" from the start, conditions were “clearly skewed in favor of one of the contestants, current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.”  The point of elections is that the outcome should be uncertain," said spokesman Tonino Picula.  “This was not the case in Russia.  There was no real competition and abuse of government resources ensured that the ultimate winner of the election was never in doubt.”