The Albany Gazette - Putin's party secures record score in Russia election

Electoral chief Ella Pamfilova said preliminary results showed United Russia -- which has dominated Russian politics for 25 years -- won 355 of the Duma's 450 seats.

The result handed Putin's party an increased supermajority and beat its previous record of 343 seats. The supermajority means it can change the constitution, if it needs to.

The Kremlin said the result of the first parliamentary election since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine in 2022 showed Russians were united around Putin, who has been in power since New Year's Eve 1999.

The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions and hit ordinary lives in Russia more than ever this year. Moscow has banned criticism of its military campaign and the only party that called for an end to the war was removed from the election.

"These indicators, of course, point to the highest level of consolidation within Russian society around the head of state," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing with journalists.

Elections under Putin are tightly controlled and few in Russia doubted United Russia would win.

Putin had encouraged Russians to vote in support of troops in Ukraine and Moscow also organised voting in occupied Ukraine.

Pamfilova said turnout was over 59 percent, thanking Russians for voting despite what she called "psychological pressure on Russia."

Russia's Ukraine campaign broke its ties with the West. Kyiv hit Moscow with its biggest drone attack of the war Sunday, the last day of voting, killing two people and setting an oil refinery ablaze.

"Despite the extreme situation, we were successful in ensuring the maximum security of these elections," Pamfilova told a Moscow press conference, thanking security services for ensuring the vote went ahead.

- Fifth year of war -

The election result is expected to further tighten Putin's grip on power.

Some fear a new military mobilisation in Russia. Putin has denied this is in the works, while Kyiv accuses Moscow of planning a callup in coming weeks.

Russia's Communist party came second in the vote, winning 40 seats. The nationalist LDPR party took 25 seats and the New People party won 20.

The election took place amid the escalation of the Ukraine war in recent months, with no diplomatic solution in sight.

For the Kremlin, it served as a barometer on the mood of Russians towards the war.

In some regions, voting also took place for the heads of regions.

In Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov -- known for ruling the Muslim-majority republic with an iron fist -- won 99.85 percent of the vote, the electoral commission said.

Opposing Kadyrov is hugely dangerous in Chechnya, which is known for extra-judicial killings.

Putin's political opponents are in exile, prison or dead -- such as his main opponents Alexei Navalny who died in an Arctic prison in 2024.

The EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas dismissed Russia's "so-called" election.

"The Kremlin silenced dissent, barred the only registered party that opposed its war in Ukraine, and shut out international election monitors. The veneer of democracy is all that remains in Russia," Kallas said.

(D.Sanchez--TAG)