Putin’s party takes a hit

Vladimir Putin’s party has taken a hit in Russia’s parliamentary elections. Reuters reports that the United Russia party took 48.5 per cent of the votes, down from 64 per cent in 2007. These results are far from reliable: the BBC reports Russia’s independent election monitoring group has already recorded more than 5,300 complaints of malpractice. But television pundits have been keen to present this election as a referendum on the Russian prime minister, as he paves his way back to the Kremlin.

Whatever the precise result, though, the early picture suggests that Putin’s subversive opponents – described by Pavel Stroilov in these pages earlier in the year – have weathered persecution to knock the Muscle Man.