Putin's party wins record majority as EU decries 'facade of democracy'

President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party secured a record majority in the country's parliamentary election, according to preliminary results announced Monday, with the EU condemning the vote as a "facade of democracy." United Russia won 355 of 450 seats in the State Duma, surpassing its previous high of 343 seats from 2016 and exceeding the 301 seats needed for constitutional changes. The Communist Party finished second with 40 seats, followed by the nationalist LDPR with 25, New People with 20, and Just Russia with four. Turnout was reported at over 59 percent. The three-day vote, the first since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, barred any opposition to the Kremlin or the war. The EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the Kremlin had "silenced dissent" and excluded international observers, vowing sanctions against organizers and candidates in occupied Ukrainian territories. Five Western nations—Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Norway—called the vote in occupied areas a "serious violation" of Ukrainian sovereignty. Voting also occurred in Crimea and the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions. On Sunday, Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on Moscow, killing two people and setting an oil refinery ablaze.