Wahlleitung: Endergebnis in Moskau: Dreiviertelmehrheit für Kreml-Partei

The Kremlin party, Russia's United Russia, emerged with a decisive three-quarters majority in Russia's parliamentary elections. According to the central election commission as reported by Tass news agency, 349 out of the 450 seats in Moscow's State Duma were secured by the Kremlin-led party. The buildup to the vote last weekend, which was marketed as a referendum on the ongoing war in Ukraine, was spearheaded by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.

Ella Pamfilova, the head of the election commission, claimed that 46 new MPs had fought in this war. The non-war party Jabloko was excluded from the nationwide and most regional elections. There are concerns that Putin may exploit the illusion of popular support for his policies to justify a new mobilization. Other parties that entered the State Duma all support Kremlin policy, with the Communists ending up with 37 seats and the nationalist Liberal Democrats with 23.

The parties New People (19 seats), Justice Russia (17), Rodina (1), and four individual candidates are also represented. Experts believe the election results are falsified, citing unfair conditions for Russian election critics and analyzing results from individual regions. United Russia allegedly exerted pressure on state employees and still managed to garner only 35 percent of the votes, according to Stanislaw Andreychuk, the former deputy head of the now-banned Vote Rights Movement Golos.

He estimated support for the Kremlin party at around 25 percent without this coercion. Officially, United Russia now has 58 percent of the votes. Andreychuk also doubts the official high turnout of nearly 59 percent, suggesting it was closer to 40 percent.