Final result of the Duma election: ruling party wins parliamentary election in Russia

The Kremlin party, United Russia, clearly won the parliamentary elections in Russia despite losses.

After counting all ballots, it came to 49.8 percent, as the Central Election Commission announced in Moscow on Tuesday.

The communists landed at 18.9 percent, the right-wing populists of the LDPR of the ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky at 7.5 percent and the Just Russia party at 7.4 percent.

The new party Nowyje Ljudi (“New People”) was just above the five percent hurdle with 5.3 percent.

United Russia General Secretary Andrei Turchak said his party had won more than 300 of the 450 seats. Turtschak spoke of a "clear and clean" victory. He pointed out that his party had also won in the 39 regions where regional parliaments were elected. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov reiterated the "competition, openness and honesty of the elections".

The ruling party had to accept losses compared to the last vote five years ago.

At that time, United Russia got 54.2 percent of the vote and 334 seats.

The communists made significant gains;

they had come to 13.35 percent five years ago.

All parties represented in the new State Duma are considered close to the Kremlin.

Opposition candidates around the imprisoned government opponent Alexei Navalny were not admitted.

His team spoke of massive election fraud.

Independent election observers listed thousands of violations.

Mood test for presidential election

For President Vladimir Putin, the three-day vote was an important test of mood in view of widespread dissatisfaction - also with a view to the presidential election in 2024. The turnout was given as 51.6 percent. This is higher than in previous elections, and there have been fewer complaints about election violations than ever before, said the head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, at a televised meeting with Putin. He said he wanted to "express special words of gratitude". "Thank you for your trust, dear friends," said Putin. More than 110 million eligible voters in Russia and abroad were called to vote. The election ended after three days on Sunday.

Even state polling institutes had only seen Putin's party at around 30 percent before the election.

The preliminary election results are "really not credible," said the spokeswoman for the imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny, Kira Jarmysch.

She is reminded of the 2011 election, when Putin “stole” the election.

"The same thing is happening at the moment," said Jarmysch.

Criticism also came from Brussels, Berlin, Washington and London.

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused Moscow of “an atmosphere of intimidation for all critical, independent voices”.

He also criticized the fact that there were no international election observers during the election.

Delay in the release of electronic voting results

The spokesman for the German government, Steffen Seibert, said there were “very serious indications from Russian opposition politicians and also from election observers” about “massive irregularities”.

The United States said the Russians were "prevented from exercising their civil rights" in the election.

The British government spoke of a "serious step backwards for democratic freedoms" in Russia.

The Russian authorities' actions against civil society, independent media and opposition politicians have undermined political diversity, the Foreign Ministry said in London.

In particular, the Russian opposition pointed to repeated delays in the release of the electronic voting results in Moscow. The election observation organization Golos also said it had received more than 4,900 reports of election fraud by Sunday evening. The state electoral commission contradicted the manipulation claims of the organization, which had been classified by the Russian authorities as a "foreign agent" before the election.

After the 2011 election, there were massive protests in Moscow.

Navalny was one of the leaders at the time.

The Kremlin critic is now in camp detention, and numerous confidants live abroad or are under arrest.

The authorities have classified the organizations he founded as "extremist" and are cracking down on them.

Among other things, they put the American companies Apple and Google under pressure, which subsequently blocked an election recommendation app of the opposition.

The exiled Navalny confidante Leonid Volkov said after the parliamentary election that it was “dirtier and worse” than in 2011. Although he did not call for immediate protests, Navalny's team would support “any peaceful protest”.