BBC News: 普京以创纪录支持率获得连任

Russia is so huge that it stretches across 11 time zones. There are about 97,000 places where people can vote here, and more than 107 million Russians are eligible to do that. The country is a presidential federation where voters directly choose their leader. Whoever wins the majority vote wins the presidency. And the nation`s current president, Vladimir Putin, was widely expected to win another six-year term.

俄罗斯幅员辽阔，横跨11个时区。有大约97,000个地方可以投票，超过1.07亿俄罗斯人有资格投票。这个国家是总统联盟，选民直接选举他们的领导人。无论谁赢得多数票，都将赢得总统选举。外界普遍预计，现任总统弗拉基米尔•普京会连任.

Mr. Putin was first appointed president in 1999. He won an election the next year and he won the next election as well. Russian leaders can only serve two consecutive terms, but Putin was appointed prime minister by his successor in 2008, and he was elected again as president in 2012. So, a win on Sunday would give him his fourth term as Russia`s leader.

1999年，普京首次被任命为总统。他赢得了次年的选举，他也赢得了下次选举。俄罗斯领导人只能连任两届，但普京在2008年被继任者任命为总理，并于2012年再次当选总统。因此，周日的胜利将使他成为俄罗斯的第四任总统。

President Putin is a controversial figure on the world stage. And according to U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Russia`s move toward an authoritarian state under Putin`s leadership, meaning that the government has become more controlling of people`s lives. Those who opposed his leadership and an election monitoring group say there have been some irregularities in this vote, like incidents that keep election observers from doing their jobs, and accusations of ballot box fraud.

普京在世界舞台上是个有争议的人物。根据美国中央情报局的表述，在普京领导下，俄罗斯走向了一个威权国家，这意味着政府对人民生活的控制越来越大。那些反对他的领导和选举监督组织的人表示，在这次投票中出现了一些违规行为，比如让选举观察员并未监察，以及对投票箱欺诈的指控。

Russia`s central election commission says 15 different countries have tried to hack its Website. But despite and the fact that several other candidates are challenging President Putin for his job, analysts say many Russians see him as a strongman who brought the nation to stability, after chaos followed the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. That`s part of the reason why he`s expected to stay right where he is.

俄罗斯中央选举委员会称有15个国家试图侵入其网站。不过，尽管有其他几位候选人在挑战普京总统的职位，但分析人士说，俄罗斯人视普京为一个铁面人物，在1991年苏联解体后出现了混乱局面，使国家走向稳定。这就是为什么他会一直胜任总统的部分原因。