Russian election results a blow to Putin

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The party created by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin faces a stunning electoral setback in parliamentary elections, breathing life into Russia's ailing democracy and calling into question his plan to return to the presidency next year.

With just over 80 per cent of the votes counted, official results from Sunday's vote showed United Russia – a party created a decade ago for the sole purpose of supporting Mr. Putin – headed for victory with approximately 50 per cent of the vote. While that was more than double the vote for the second-place Communists, it was a sharp drop from the 63 per cent the party won in the last election four years ago and threatened to leave the party reliant on coalition partners to pass legislation in the Duma.

Critics said even the lower figure was greatly inflated, amid widespread reports of ballot-stuffing, voter intimidation and the harassment of election observers. Small protests broke out on the streets of Moscow and other cities, and the approaches to the Kremlin and Red Square were blocked Sunday night by rows of Interior Ministry soldiers and troop carriers.

"United Russia has to bear some responsibility for the failures, as well as the successes for the past few years," an angry looking Mr. Putin said in brief remarks as the early results became public. The electoral rebuke came two weeks after he was jeered during an appearance at a mixed-martial-arts match in Moscow – the first evidence Russians had turned on the strongman who first shot to power with wide public approval 12 years ago.

Mr. Putin – recently named by Forbes magazine as the world's second most-powerful person, behind only U.S. President Barrack Obama – suddenly looks much less dominating. His opponents at home will be heartened, and it will no longer be as clear internationally that Mr. Putin alone speaks for Russia.

The results were also seen as a blow for Dmitri Medvedev, who as United Russia's candidate for prime minister was theoretically the party's leader in the Duma elections. "Taken the more complicated configuration of the Duma, we will have to enter in to coalitions and agreements [with other parties]on certain issues," he said Sunday. "This is what parliamentarianism and democracy are about."

The March presidential elections – previously expected to be a coronation for Mr. Putin – now gain fresh importance, though it's unclear whether any genuine opposition candidates will be able to register. In previous votes, the Kremlin has only allowed its approved candidates onto the ballot.

But the next test for the Kremlin will be how it deals with the widespread allegations of fraud. Several prominent Russian news organizations, including The New Times and Kommersant newspapers, as well as Echo of Moscow radio, saw their websites crash under apparent denial-of-service attacks just before polling stations opened, leaving them unable to report on a growing number of complaints about alleged irregularities at polling stations.

The drop in support for Mr. Putin and his party was felt even in places such as Vladivostok, Russia's Pacific capital and seven time zones east of Moscow. Once a bastion of support for Mr. Putin and his narrative that Russians had to sacrifice some recently won freedoms (the Soviet Union collapsed 20 years ago this week), many voters here turned to the opposition Sunday for the first time in a decade.

The turning point for many came this fall when Mr. Putin announced he would switch jobs with President Medvedev and return to the Kremlin after four years in the theoretically subordinate position of prime minister. The decision was announced at a United Russia party congress in Moscow, and struck many voters as evidence that the man and the party had become too arrogant.

"I would like to see more dynamic political life. I don't accept this rotation of president and prime minister. It doesn't look good to the outside world, or from any democratic point of view," said a 58-year-old retired policeman who said he had voted for a socialist party called For a Just Russia, which placed fourth in Sunday's vote.

It was a widespread sentiment among voters in Vladivostok, a pretty city of steep hills that overlook the bobbing destroyers of Russia's Pacific Fleet. While cynicism about the process was high – few expected any party but United Russia would be declared the winner – voters said they hoped for at least some checks to be introduced on Mr. Putin's currently unrivalled power.

At polling stations, the hardest type of voter to find was one who said he cast his ballot for United Russia. The party and its leader, which took the credit for the country's economic successes in the first half of the past decade, unwillingly absorbed the blame as Russia was hit hard by the global economic crisis. Mr. Putin is now commonly referred to as a dictator by his detractors, while United Russia is seen by many voters as deeply corrupt.

"People are sick and tired of Putin," said Yevgenia Albats, editor in chief of The New Times, a pro-opposition newspaper in Moscow. "They turn on the TV and they see Putin, Putin, Putin, and at the same time they see don't see their lives improving significantly."