Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday congratulated Vladimir Putin on his victory in the Russian presidential election, state-run SANA news agency reported.

Assad's statement came in a letter sent to Moscow, in which he expressed congratulations to Putin, who, as incumbent prime minister, won about 64 percent of the votes in Sunday's election, on his "distinctive victory" and wished him success in fulfilling his responsibilities.

Earlier in the day, state-run Tishreen newspaper said in its editorial that "Russia brings back the strong man to Kremlin," adding that "Putin's win would "bolster hopes of new shaping for international relations to be based on respecting the countries' interests and unity and not to interfere in their internal affairs. "

Russia's return to the international arena with its balanced and objective policies "would be able to end the state of hegemony practiced by Washington throughout the past period," it said.

Meanwhile, state-owned newspaper Al-Baath said Putin's victory would "spare the entire world the catastrophes of taking unilateral international resolutions and double standard polices."

Syria's another official paper, Al-Thawra, also said in an editorial that the world's people are hopeful that Putin's win would re-launch the "multipolar world order that could put an end to the dominance of a unipolar."

Putin won a resounding victory in Sunday's presidential election with about 64 percent of the votes, the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) said Monday.

CEC Chairman Vladimir Churov announced the preliminary results of the election after 99.3 percent of the ballots were counted early on Monday.

Russia is a staunch supporter to Damascus as it deems national dialogue as the sole way to solve Syria's one-year-old domestic unrest. It also rejects foreign calls for militarizing the opposition in Syria, a move welcomed by the Assad regime.