Putin’s United Russia party sweeps seats in parliament

MOSCOW – Foreign election observers and Russian opposition groups accused authorities Monday of manipulating a sweeping parliamentary victory for the party of President Vladimir Putin, who hailed the vote as a validation of his leadership.\n“Of course it’s a sign of trust,” Putin said in televised remarks. “Russians will never allow the nation to take a destructive path, as happened in some other ex-Soviet nations.”\nThe victory of the United Russia party sets the stage for Putin to stay in charge as a “national leader” even after he steps down as president next spring because of term limits.\nThe presidential candidate to be named by his party this month is expected to be a figurehead who would take orders from Putin or even step down early to let Putin regain his seat. Any candidate who has Putin’s support could be expected to win easily amid tight Kremlin’s control over media and official harassment of opposition groups.\nPro-Kremlin youth activists accused the United States of planning to incite “thieves” and “traitors” to seize key public buildings and squares, and urged the crowd at a postelection celebration Monday to help thwart the attempt.\nRussia’s opposition groups and European observers criticized the vote as unfair, citing reports of pressure exerted by election authorities and workplace managers for Russians to vote for Putin’s party.\nOpposition leader Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion, denounced the vote as “the most unfair and dirtiest in the whole history of modern Russia.”\nWith ballots from nearly 98 percent of precincts counted, Putin’s United Russia party was leading with 64.1 percent of the vote, the Central Election Commission said – which would give it a sweep of 70 percent of the seats in parliament.\nThe only opposition party to make it into parliament, the Communists, trailed with just 11.6 percent of the vote, with Kremlin-allied parties claiming the rest of Sunday’s vote.