Dmitry Medvedev expectedly won the Russian presidential election by a landslide and vowed to work closely with the man who tapped him for the job, President Vladimir Putin.

Medvedev won 70.2% of the vote, with 99.45 % of precincts counted, according to the head of the elections commission on Monday.

Earlier, the commission said Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov was in second place with almost 18 % of the vote, followed by populist nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky with 10 % and a largely unknown Andrei Bogdanov with 1.3 %.

Medvedev, 42, said the "unprecedented high" turnout -- which he put at about two-thirds of eligible voters -- was an indication "that our people are not indifferent to the future of our country" and gives him the mandate he needs to govern.

He pledged to follow the foreign policy priorities set during the eight years of Putin's rule, "the essence of which is the protection of Russian interests around the whole perimeter."

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