The results

Dmitry Medvedev was the runaway winner of Russia's presidential election Sunday, getting about 70 percent of the vote with 97 percent of the precincts counted. Three others were on the ballot: Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov, who was polling about 18 percent; ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, 10 percent, and Andrei Bogdanov of the Democratic Party, 1 percent.

Liliya Shabanova, the head of the independent Russian election monitoring group Golos, said Sunday that her organization was receiving a steady stream of complaints and reports of irregularities, including blatant attempts to influence voters and voters being "bought off." Zyuganov, the Communist leader, said he planned to file a protest. Liberal opposition leaders Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Kasyanov were barred from running for president at all on technicalities.

After the polls closed, Medvedev appeared with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's Red Square.

Medvedev: "We will increase stability, improve the quality of life and move forward on the path we have chosen. We will be able to preserve the course of President Putin."

Putin: "This victory will serve as a guarantee that the course we have chosen, the successful course we have been following over the past eight years, will be continued."

Medvedev will take office in May. Putin will become prime minister.

The name is pronounced med-VEHD'-ev. It stems from medved, the Russian word for bear.