Vladimir Putin claimed victory in Sunday's presidential elections, but opposition-party members said mass vote rigging marred the process.

The electoral commission said that with 98% of the votes counted, Putin won 64%, enough to give him a first-round victory over nearest rival Gennady Zyuganov, who polled about 17%

The other three candidates were in single digits.

In a news conference after the polls closed, Zyuganov described the elections as "unfair and unworthy".

But he said that with increasing public anger, Putin "would not be able to rule like he used to".

"These elections cannot be considered legitimate in any way," said Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the leaders of the street protest movement, which was not represented in the election.

Chess champion-turned-opposition activist Garry Kasparov accused Putin's supporters of "massive fraud" early Monday by packing the polls with additional voters.

The election was held against a backdrop of popular discontent, sparked by allegations of widespread fraud during December's parliamentary elections in favour of Mr Putin's United Russia party.

The alleged fraud came despite the presence of thousands of independent observers and web cameras at polling stations.

Opposition blogger and anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny told the BBC: "Grandiose scale of falsifications, especially in Moscow... mass use of carousel voting."

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