Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has congratulated Vladimir Putin on his landslide victory at Russia’s presidential elections held on Sunday.

"Your victory in the election testifies to high confidence of the Russian people to you and your program related to political and social stability, ensuring economic growth, further development of democratic institutions, strengthening rule of law and law and order, protection of spiritual, moral values and norms in the life of society in your country," President Aliyev wrote in a letter.

Aliyev stressed that today friendship and good neighborliness relations based on centuries-long traditions between Azerbaijan and Russia are developing comprehensively and dynamically.

"I’m sure that joint intergovernmental activity and strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Russia will continue strengthening and expanding due to our joint efforts for the prosperity of our peoples and for the peace, stability and security in the region," the letter says.

President Aliyev also phoned Putin on Monday. During the conversation, they expressed satisfaction with successful development of multi-faceted relations between the two countries and expressed confidence that bilateral ties would further strengthen.

Aliyev invited Putin to pay a visit to Azerbaijan at his earliest convenience.

With 99 percent of the ballots counted, Vladimir Putin secured 63.82 percent, or 44.9 million votes, the Central Election Commission said on Monday.

The Communist leader, Gennady Zyuganov, received 17.18 percent of the vote, or over 12 million ballots, while independent candidate, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov came in third with 7.77 percent (5.4 million votes).

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the nationalist LDPR party, came fourth with 6.23 percent. The Just Russia party candidate and former Federation Council speaker Sergei Mironov tails the list with 3.84 percent.