MOSCOW, March 14: Russian President Vladimir Putin swept back into the Kremlin on Sunday with a landslide election win that analysts said augured well for economic reform, but liberals fear could spell bad news for democracy.

An exit poll, published after voting ended in the world's biggest country, showed Putin had easily brushed aside his five rivals and led the field by a massive 69 per cent of the vote.

"The leader is definite. No change is seen. The leader, and obvious leader, is Vladimir Putin," declared Alexander Veshnyakov, head of the Central Electoral Commission.

His victory, a foregone conclusion, gives the former KGB spy enormous powers, which he says he will use to pursue the economic reforms needed to drag Russia from the mire left after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Early partial results put communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov in second place with 14.3 percent and two others, nationalist Sergei Glazyev and liberal Irina Khakamada, a strident Putin critic, well behind with 4.7 and 4.6 percent. -Reuters