In a tightly controlled political system which critics say does not tolerate genuine dissent, initial results showed United Russia comfortably ahead with 57.5 percent of the vote. Other parties like the Communists, the ultra-nationalist LDPR, the New People party and the Just Russia party – who all vote the same way as United Russia on major issues – trailed by a huge margin but were on course to win seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and a former president, was quick to declare that United Russia had performed with dignity, a result he said showed that Russians had entrusted it to govern further.

Russian government officials accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt the State Duma vote – the first since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022 – after Kyiv launched hundreds of drones at Moscow and other regions in what the TASS state news agency said was the biggest attack of its kind since the war began.

The drone strikes killed three people in the Moscow region and two more in the Russian-held part of Ukraine's Kherson region, including an election official, according to the region's governor and the election commission.

A facility at Moscow's oil refinery, which has been targeted before, was also damaged. As voting got underway in the capital, flames and huge columns of smoke rose from the site on its outskirts.

"The biggest attack by enemy drones has been repelled," Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram. "This unprecedented attack was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections. The enemy did not succeed."

Russia's Defense Ministry said Ukraine had also fired Flamingo cruise missiles and said it had downed nearly 2,000 Ukrainian drones targeting various regions and 8 cruise missiles in the last 24 hours. It said it would intensify its own strikes on Ukrainian military targets in response.

Voting systems hit by cyber attacks

Voting systems also faced waves of cyber attacks, according to election authorities, who said that the electoral process had nonetheless been mostly smooth.

Russia's opposition in exile had called on those who opposed the authorities to stand in line at voting stations at noon to express their dissent, a call which saw long lines form in some locations. It was unclear, however, what impact that had on the overall outcome.

The Kremlin is likely to present the results as evidence of public backing for Putin's policies and for the war, now in its fifth year with no sign of ending soon.

Central Election Commission Chairwoman (CEC) Ella Pamfilova said the latest attacks had not deterred voters. "The more pressure they put on us, the more we are seeing an unprecedented level of what I would call public unity," RIA news agency quoted her as saying.

Turnout had reached nearly 57 percent as of early evening Moscow time, CEC data showed.

Most anti-war candidates have been barred from the ballot. Those who did run from the liberal Yabloko party, which has polled in the single digits in recent years but hoped to tap into war fatigue, said they feared for their freedom after courts handed long jail terms to two senior party figures before the vote for comments about the conflict.

Discrediting the army or spreading what authorities regard as fake news is punishable by lengthy prison sentences.

In a small act of defiance, Yabloko's leader, Nikolai Rybakov, demonstrably spoiled his ballot paper, writing his party's name and the slogan "For peace".

The Kremlin says national unity and some censorship are necessary during what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine. It casts the conflict – Europe's deadliest since World War Two – as part of an existential struggle with a hostile West. Moscow says Ukrainian intelligence services and other enemies are stepping up efforts to stir unrest inside Russia.

Permitted opposition parties could benefit

Kyiv, which has suspended elections under martial law, has dismissed the Russian vote as a "pseudo election".

Despite what experts see as the election's predictable outcome, the NEST think-tank in Berlin, co-founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom Russian authorities have designated "a foreign agent", said the vote could still produce awkward moments for the Kremlin at a time of economic strain.

It said the Communist party and the New People party could attract votes the authorities would prefer to go to United Russia.

"The consequences of the war are increasingly being felt within the country, and accumulated anxiety and frustration may translate into votes for the systemic opposition parties that the Kremlin has allowed to remain on the ballot," it said in a note.

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