We Went to Putin's Victory Rally

Photos by Andrei Zaplatin

On Sunday, Vladimir Putin was re-elected president of Russia for the third time with a 63 pecent-plus majority of the vote, beating out an old communist, Jay-Z's tall billionaire friend, an insane nationalist, and some other guy.

Even with cases of voter fraud again reported, independent election observers say Putin healthily won the election, though possibly didn't have the 50 percent or more needed to avoid a run-off election. Guess we'll never know.

After enough votes had been counted for the result to look safe, Putin held a big election rally outside the Kremlin for himself where some tens of thousands gathered. And also Putin cried. Though this was also reported as being caused by the "wind," we all know Putin's a big softy finally coming out of his hardened shell.

Here's some photos our VICE Russia correspondent Andrei Zaplatin took wandering through the jovial crowd.