Russia votes in presidential election;
Russians began voting Sunday in a presidential election that will produce a successor to Vladimir Putin and almost certainly open a path for Putin to take a new and powerful role after eight years in which Russia's global influence expanded and its domestic democracy contracted.
Vladimir Putin won the Russian presidency with an overwhelming number of votes as predicted Sunday, but he returns to that office with his strong hand weakened and many of his countrymen far more assertive and ambitious than when he first took power 12 years ago.