Prime Minister Modi called Putin after his victory and agreed to work together to deepen India-Russia relations

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Modi congratulated President Putin on his re-election (file photo)

New Delhi:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called Russian President Vladimir Putin to once again congratulate him on his re-election as president.

During the phone conversation, the two leaders agreed to intensify efforts to expand the “special and privileged strategic partnership” between India and Russia.

Sharing details of his phone call with the Russian President on and privileged strategic partnerships.”

Speak with President Putin on the phone and congratulate him on his re-election as President of the Russian Federation. We agreed to work together to further deepen and expand the India-Russia special and privileged strategic partnership in the coming years. @kremlinrussia

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 20, 2024

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Modi congratulated President Putin on his re-election via a post on X and expressed his expectation to further strengthen India-Russia strategic partnership and people-to-people ties.

“Warm congratulations to His Excellency Mr. Vladimir Putin on his re-election as President of the Russian Federation,” Prime Minister Modi had earlier posted on his X account.

“Looking forward to working together in the coming years to further strengthen the time-tested special and privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia. @KremlinRussia,” he added.

Russia’s TASS news agency reported, citing data from the Central Electoral Commission of the Russian Federation, that Putin won Sunday’s presidential election, receiving 87.17% of the vote, based on the results of the 70% electoral agreement.

Nikolai Kharitonov, candidate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, came in second with 4.1% of the vote, and Vladislav Davankov, candidate of the New People’s Party, came in third with 4.8% of the vote.

Leonid Slutsky, the candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), received only 3.15% of the votes counted.

Putin received more votes than in the 2018 election, when he received 76.69% of the total votes counted. Other candidates reportedly performed worse than Russian President Vladimir Putin’s previous rivals in 2018.

This is the first time remote electronic voting has been used in a Russian presidential election. Residents of 28 regions use the federal platform, while the people of Moscow vote on their own platform.

The final turnout for online voting on the federal platform was 94%, meaning 4.4 million people voted online. In Moscow, nearly 3.7 million electronic ballots were issued, including for voters using special terminals at polling stations.

Putin has served four terms as President of Russia. He was first elected president in 2000 and re-elected in 2004, 2012 and 2018.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)