Putin's party wins big in Russian elections

• United Russia won a large majority, taking 57.5 percent with just over 71 percent of ballots counted. 
• The vote was marked by cyberattacks and a barrage of Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow. 
• No anti-war party was allowed to run, and critics say the contest was tightly controlled. 

Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party has won Monday a large majority in Russia's parliamentary elections, a vote marked by cyberattacks and a barrage of Ukrainian drone strikes, according to results published by state media. 

The election was the first since Moscow launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

A commanding lead

With just over 71 percent of ballots counted, United Russia took 57.5 percent of the vote, Russian news agencies reported. The Communist Party and the LDPR nationalists trailed on 14 and 8.7 percent respectively. TASS projections indicate the ruling party will keep its two-thirds majority of the 450 Duma seats, which would allow it to amend the constitution. 

A state-run exit poll had put United Russia lower, at 49.4 percent, close to its share in the previous election. 

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and a former president, quickly said United Russia had performed with dignity, and that the result showed Russians had entrusted it to keep governing.

Drones over the capital

The vote ran for three days, and Ukraine's strikes peaked on the last. Officials said Ukrainian forces fired more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight, including what Moscow's mayor described as the largest attack ever on the capital. 

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the assault was clearly planned to disrupt the elections and that it had not succeeded. He put the number of drones at more than 1,600, so the scale of the attack depends on who is counting.

Casualty reports also differ slightly. France 24 reported three deaths in the Moscow region and two more in Russian-held Kherson, one of them an election official. Other outlets cited two dead around Moscow, and an oil refinery was set ablaze.

Russia's defence ministry accused Kyiv of trying to disrupt the democratic will of Russian citizens, and Moscow vowed to intensify its strikes on Kyiv in response.

The election also faced a digital front. Russia's electoral chief said a wave of cyberattacks had targeted election infrastructure as voting entered its final day.

A controlled contest

Critics say the outcome was never in much doubt. No party opposed to the war was allowed to run. The Supreme Court barred the liberal, anti-war Yabloko party from fielding a federal list weeks before the vote, though some of its candidates stayed on the ballot in single-mandate districts. 

The other parties set to win seats, including the Communists, LDPR, New People and Just Russia, generally vote alongside United Russia on major issues. The monitor OVD-Info counts more than 2,000 people imprisoned on political charges, and the OSCE was not invited to observe the vote.

Voting also took place in Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia, and Putin urged Russians to take part, casting the vote as a show of support for Russian troops. Turnout was seen as a possible barometer of public opinion on the war. 

With its supermajority likely secure, United Russia will control the Duma as the war continues, and the exchange of strikes shows no sign of easing.

Figures are preliminary and may change as final results come in.

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