Putin Cements Power in Russian Election

Vladimir Putin's party has won a crushing victory in Russia's parliamentary elections after what opposition parties have called the "most irresponsible and dirty" poll in the post-Soviet era.

The landslide win for Putin's United Russia party will allow him to remain in control even after he steps down as president.

The US has called for an investigation of voting irregularities including claims of intimidation and media bias.

The Communist party, which came second in the poll, has vowed to challenge the result.

But Boris Gryzlov, the United Russia leader and speaker of the parliament, said: "The vote affirmed the main idea: that Vladimir Putin is the national leader, that the people support his course, and this course will continue."

With ballots from nearly 98% of precincts counted, United Russia was leading with 64.1% while the Communists trailed with 11.6%, the Central Election Commission said.

Turnout was about 62%, up from 56% in the last parliamentary elections four years ago.

The Kremlin portrayed the election as a plebiscite on Putin's nearly eight years as president - with the promise that a major victory would allow him to somehow remain leader after his second term ends next year.

Putin is constitutionally prohibited from running for a third consecutive term but clearly wants to stay in power. A movement has sprung up in recent weeks urging him to become a "national leader", though it is unclear what duties and powers this would entail.

Pollsters said United Russia's performance would give it an overwhelming majority of 306 seats in the 450-seat Duma, the lower house of parliament. The Communists would have 57 seats.

Two other pro-Kremlin parties - the nationalist Liberal Democratic party and the populist Just Russia - also appeared to have made it into parliament, with 8.2% and 7.6% respectively.

One Liberal Democratic party deputy will be Andrei Lugovoi, who is a former KGB officer and the chief suspect in the poisoning death of the Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London last year. Russia has refused to hand Lugovoi over to Britain, and the Duma seat provides him with immunity from prosecution.

The Bush administration has called on Russia to investigate claims the vote was manipulated.

"In the run-up to election day we expressed our concern regarding the use of state administrative resources in support of United Russia, the bias of the state-owned or influenced media in favor of United Russia, intimidation of political opposition, and the lack of equal opportunity encountered by opposition candidates and parties," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the president's national security council.