Putin's Russia United Loses Votes, Seats in Election

Growing opposition to Putin's iron-fisted tendencies substantially reduces his party's majority.

Vladimir Putin has suffered his first true electoral rebuke of the past decade, as results from Russia' parliamentary election show that his party, Russia United, has nearly lost its majority of seats in the Duma. Russia United earned about 49.5 per cent of the popular vote, which translated to 238 of the Duma's 450 seats – a majority, albeit a slim one. That number could very be inflated, as international monitors have said that vote fraud likely played a role in bumping up Russia United's numbers. While the results might not greatly affect Russia United's ability to pass legislation, they've been seen as a protest against the man who's dominated the country's politics since the departure of Boris Yeltsin. Of course, Putin is still well on his way to returning to the presidency in elections in March, a position currently held by Dmitry Medvedev. Putin has said that if when he's "elected" president, he will appoint Medvedev as his prime minister. We suppose once Putin's term is up, he can just pull the old switcheroo with Medvedev once again. On the flipside, Russia's Communist Party (remember them? Stalin? Gulags? Bread riots? Eisenstein?) picked up a healthy 20 per cent of the popular vote, an increase from the 12 per cent it garnered last time around.