Russia's Putin hails election victory as West cries foul

Vladimir Putin
©AFP/Pool - Sergey Ponomarev

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Monday his party's landslide election victory as a vote for stability, but foreign observers cried foul and the West urged the Kremlin to probe fraud allegations.

"It's a good example of the domestic political stability in Russia," Putin told reporters after visiting a research centre on the outskirts of Moscow.

"The legitimacy of the Russian parliament has without a doubt been increased," Putin said.

With 98 percent of ballots counted from Sunday's election, Putin's United Russia party had secured 64.1 percent, giving it more than two thirds of seats in parliament -- a majority sufficient to change the constitution.

The Communists and other opposition parties denounced the ballot as the most dishonest in Russian history and foreign observers called the Kremlin's backing for Putin's party an "abuse of power."

"We are protesting against the falsified result of the elections," Yevgeny Kopyshev, 68, a retired Russian general, said at a Communist Party rally with dozens of activists in central Moscow, surrounded by police and soldiers.

Members of the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi hold a rally in Moscow
©AFP - Maxim Marmur

"Election Fraud Is The Death of Russia," read one placard at the rally.

The criticisms were taken up by Western governments, with the United States calling for a full investigation of reported violations and NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer voicing "concern" over democratic freedoms in Russia.

But Putin said that the result reflected a national desire for continuity.

"It is clear that Russians will never let their country go down the destructive path of certain countries in the former Soviet space," Putin said, referring to pro-Western popular revolts in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.

According to the Kremlin, French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke by telephone with Putin and offered "warm" congratulations although France's foreign ministry called on Russia to "shed full light" on fraud allegations.

Germany meanwhile said there was "no doubt" that the elections were not free and fair, while Britain urged Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) to investigate "urgently" the charges of electoral abuse.

Graphic showing the preliminary results of the Russian parliamentary elections
©AFP/Graphic

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi appealed to Russian authorities to "clarify" the election results and there were also expressions of concern from Russia's western neighbour Poland.

In Moscow, election observers from the Council of Europe and the parliamentary assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the vote had fallen short of international norms.

"Merging of the state and a political party is an abuse of power and clear violation of international standards," Goran Lennmarker, head of the OSCE's parliamentary assembly told reporters.

Putin and most of Russia's regional governors headed up electoral lists for United Russia, a tactic seen as having contributed to the party's overwhelming victory.

The CEC in Moscow rejected the criticism, accusing European observers of bias and hinting at US interference, saying that the monitoring was "a political order" from "across the ocean."

Television crews monitor Russia's parliamentary election results
©AFP - Yuri Kadobnov

Meanwhile, several thousand members of the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi held a victory rally in central Moscow, carrying placards that read "The Traitors Will Not Seize Power" and "Victory Is Ours."

The Communist Party came a distant second with 11.6 percent, while two other pro-Kremlin parties -- the ultra-nationalist LDPR party and the centre-left A Just Russia party -- got 8.2 percent and 7.8 percent respectively.

Seven other parties failed to achieve a new seven-percent election threshold, making it the first time since the Soviet collapse in 1991 that the liberal opposition failed to win a single seat.

The nationwide turnout was 62 percent, but in war-ravaged Chechnya it reached Soviet-style records of 99 percent of eligible voters, according to election officials.

The Communists, liberal parties and The Other Russia opposition movement led by former chess champion Garry Kasparov called on Russians to protest against the election result.

"We call on citizens to express their protest in different ways against this form of violence on the people's choice," Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov said in a statement.

Kasparov urged opposition forces to unite, saying: "Everyone has one goal -- to save the country from dictatorship."

He said he would symbolically lay flowers outside the election commission later on Monday to mark the death of Russian democracy.

The vote was seen as setting the scene for the presidential election in March next year at which Putin is obliged to step down after serving a maximum of two consecutive terms in office.

So far no political figure seen as having a realistic chance of winning the powerful post of president has come forward, but all candidates are due to register for the vote by December 23.

United Russia has said it will nominate its candidate on December 17.

Putin has said that a parliamentary victory would give him a "moral" mandate to retain a leading political role, and United Russia has said he should stay on as "national leader".