Pro-Putin party wins polls

The pro-Putin ruling United Russia party won a record number of seats in the national parliament, according to near-complete official election results on Monday, while the anti-war Yabloko party appeared to have won a tiny foothold in one regional parliament. President Vladimir Putin had cast the three-day election to the State Duma - the first since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022 - as a test of support for the war. Elections for some regional parliaments and governors were held at the same time. In a tightly controlled political system, which critics say does not tolerate genuine dissent, under which many of Yabloko's candidates were barred, few surprises were expected. But political analysts said it was important to the authorities that the process itself was seen to be relatively smooth. Officials from Putin down had cast the vote as a way of showing enemies that Russia was united. With over 95% of the vote counted, Ella Pamfilova, chair of the Central Electoral Commission, said United Russia had scored 57.83%, up from the 49.8% that it won in the last parliamentary election, in 2021. United Russia was set to control 355 seats or nearly 80% of the 450-seat Duma, a total that includes results in individual constituencies. That would maintain its constitutional majority - enabling it to pass laws and initiate amendments to the constitution without the support of other parties. It would also be an all-time high, outstripping its 2016 record of 343 seats. Four other parties had made it into parliament - the Communists with 13.81%, the ultra-nationalist LDPR with 8.98% and the New People party with 7.96%. The Just Russia party narrowly made the 5% threshold needed to enter parliament. All of those parties have voted in the same way as United Russia on major issues in recent years. In Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Putin ally, was re-elected to a fifth term as leader with an official tally of near 100%.