Vladimir Putin said “of course, irregularities happened”. Thus, he admitted that there were irregularities in the last elections that declared him as the clear winner with 63.60% of the votes. “We must denounce them and make it clear so that everybody will be fine” he added.

Putin insisted that despite the “irregularities”, his victory was clear and that was part of “an open and clean fight”. He urged the Central Election Commission (CEC) to investigate the accusations. “I hope them to have maximum supervision and control of the situation so that there is no confusion”.

The leader also gave a few words to his opponents, such as the Communist Guennadi Ziugánov, arguing that the failure to acknowledge his victory is “an element of a political struggle that is not related to the elections”.

The streets of Moscow had been taken by a protest demanding the repetition of the December elections.

Internet site reference: http://m24digital.com/en/2012/03/06/putin-admitted-that-there-were-irregularities-in-the-presidential-elections/