TODAY: OSCE condemns election result; Putin delivers victory speech to ‘tens of thousands’ after claiming 64% win; opposition plan this evening’s protest; widespread allegations of voting fraud; Medvedev calls for investigation into legality of Khodorkovsky case; Duma adopts three new bills at first reading, including one on gubernatorial elections.

Demonstrators are planning to gather in Moscow this evening (with a reported 12,000 police and troops ready to contain them) after a tearful Vladimir Putin, flanked by his protégé Dmitry Medvedev, celebrated election victory yesterday – a victory he claims is the result of ‘an open and fair struggle’.  This contrasts sharply with the views of international observers, domestic observers, and opposition figures alike.  The European OSCE observer mission announced ‘serious problems’ with the election and ‘clearly skewed’ results.  Alexei Navalny responded that ‘[h]e who has declared himself president is a usurper.’  Putin’s comments also sharply contrasted thousands of allegations of voting fraud, including ‘carousels’ bussing groups of voters around various polling stations to cast numerous votes, and ballot fraud.  ‘Some monitoring efforts were simply shut down.’  Golos says that 5,000 reports of violations have been registered thus far, as Putin’s campaign manager talks of the cleanest election ‘in the entire history of Russia’, whilst even the Central Elections Commission says that over 800,000 ballot papers have been recognised as invalid, as head Vladimir Churov denies the mass removal of observers from polling stations.  You can view voting image galleries at the Guardian and the BBC.