The Russian people chose to strengthen their Fatherland and develop it, despite external pressure and the campaign to fail the State Duma elections. This was stated in a comment by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, TASS reports, quoted by Focus.
According to her, despite serious attempts to destabilize the electoral process, citizens have shown stability.
"Despite fierce external pressure and a large-scale campaign to fail the elections, the Russian people, faithful to the historical memory of their ancestors, demonstrated resilience and unity, choosing to strengthen their Fatherland and ensure its stable development,'', the diplomat noted.
The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation announced earlier in the day the final results of the country's first parliamentary elections held in the context of a full-scale military conflict. The vote solidified the Kremlin's total political monopoly, giving the ruling party “United Russia“ a record majority in the lower house of parliament, TASS news agency reported.
According to official figures, the pro-Kremlin party “United Russia“ won over three-quarters of the seats in the new State Duma.
The head of the Russian Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, announced that voter turnout had reached its highest level in the last three parliamentary campaigns. The voting was organized over three days, with electronic voting also being introduced in a number of regions.
"Over 59.8% of voters took part in the elections. To be exact, 67,448,094 people. This is a record figure for the last three parliamentary campaigns,“ Pamfilova said.
Putin's party won a total of 349 out of 450 seats in the State Duma. It received 58% of the votes on proportional party lists (carrying 140 seats) and won in 209 single-mandate districts. The remaining 97 seats were distributed among smaller formations of the so-called “systemic opposition“, which traditionally support the line of the White House and the Kremlin on key issues, and four seats were taken by independent candidates.
The elections for the ninth State Duma are the first parliamentary elections since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The vote was also held on the territory of the occupied and annexed Ukrainian regions, as well as in the Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014. Kiev and the international community have categorically condemned the holding of the vote in these territories as completely illegal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday that the results achieved are direct evidence of broad public support for the policy pursued by the state leadership.