Link: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-putin-election-result-navalny-b2514196.html

The West has criticized Vladimir Putin’s sham elections as the Russian president sent a sinister warning to Nato.

Putin warned against any move that would risk direct conflict with Russia, saying it would be “one step away from World War 3”.

Asked about the dangers of a wide-scale Nato-Russia conflict, Putin said: “Everything is possible in the modern world.”

It is the latest example of the Russian president dangling the threat of a larger, or even nuclear, conflict in Europe as he attempts to pressure Ukraine’s Western allies against an escalation of their involvement in his war.

The comments came as Putin claimed a landslide victory in Russia’s sham presidential election with 87.8 per cent of the vote.

The US, Germany, the UK and other nations have said the vote was neither free nor fair due to the imprisonment of political opponents and censorship.

Earlier, Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, called Mr Putin a “killer” and a “gangster”, as she joined scores of Russians unhappy with his regime lining up to vote on Sunday afternoon at polling stations both inside Russia and at its embassies around the world.