Putin expected to tighten grip as Russians vote

Russian President Vladimir Putin casts his ballot in a polling station in Moscow yesterday. Russian President Vladimir Putin voted early yesterday in a parliamentary election that could hand his United Russia a constitutional majority and squeeze out the liberal opposition. PHOTO: AFP

Security was stepped up around the railway network and at some polling stations following a suicide bombing on a train near the rebel Chechnya region on Friday.

At polling stations in Russia's far eastern Arctic regions, people fought through thick snow and powerful winds to kick off the vote. Voting stations then opened one after another as the sun rose across the sprawling country's 11 time zones.

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In Yekaterinburg, the border between Europe and Asia, many said they saw little choice but to vote for Putin's party in the election to the State Duma (lower house) after a colorless campaign marked by media curbs offered almost no alternative.

"I am voting for those who support authority. Only they have the power to do something," Alexei Belousov, a businessman, said in cold but bright Yekaterinburg. "They do not suit everyone, but there really is no alternative."

The pro-Putin United Russia bloc has campaigned on a law-and-order, anti-corruption platform. Pollsters predict an increase in its lead over the still-strong communists, who draw on support from largely older people disillusioned by post-Soviet poverty.

Putin's supporters were expected to win a large majority but not the two-thirds necessary for constitutional reforms. The liberal opposition could fail completely to cross a five percent barrier to qualify for Duma seats.

This would place the 51-year-old KGB spy-turned-president, criticized by his opponents for an increasingly autocratic style, in an unstoppable position if he runs for a second term in the Kremlin next March.

Putin and his wife Lyudmila cast their votes at a newly painted polling station in southwest Moscow, saying they had arrived early because their dog had given birth to puppies.

Few who turned out early on the streets had any enthusiasm for a Kremlin drive against oil giant YUKOS that has unnerved big business. Russia's wealthiest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested last month on fraud charges and his shares frozen.

The privatization of the oil industry is one of the keystones of privatization so far and there is some concern about any suggestion of a Kremlin bid to reverse the process.

They appeared also little concern about the conflict in the rebel region of Chechnya.