Putin's party secures record score in Russia election

Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party won a record supermajority in the Duma, authorities announced on Monday, following a tightly controlled three-day election in which parties critical of the Kremlin or the war in Ukraine were barred.

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 expanded supermajority and surpassed its previous record of 343 seats, giving it a free hand to pursue constitutional changes.

The Kremlin said 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 in Ukraine and hit ordinary lives in Russia more than ever this year.