Russia’s Vladimir Putin hails election victory, but critics make presence known despite harsh suppression

President Vladimir Putin basked in an election victory that was never in doubt as officials said Monday that he’d won his fifth term with a record number of votes, underlining the Russian leader’s total control of the country’s political system. After facing only token challengers and harshly suppressing opposition voices, Putin extended his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years. As CBS News senior foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports, the highly-predictable election results set Putin up to be the longest serving Russian leader in 200 years. But there were small acts of visible protest against the voting, which was held…