The ruling United Russia party won elections around the country today, early results showed, results that will preserve President Vladimir Putin's dominance.
However, opponents alleged widespread violations in the voting.
The first big elections since Mr Putin began a new six-year term in May will do little to appease opponents who say he has used election fraud and suppression of dissent to maintain his grip on power.
Results from contests from the Baltic Sea to Kamchatka on the Pacific Ocean showed United Russia had won or was heading for victory in all five provincial governorship races.
It also looks set to win in several votes for provincial and city legislatures.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, to whom Mr Putin handed the chairmanship of United Russia after they swapped jobs, said the ruling party had done better than in a December parliamentary election in which it lost dozens of seats.
Charges of fraud in that election brought tens of thousands of people into the streets of Moscow for the biggest opposition protests of Mr Putin's 12-year rule, but he won the presidency in March despite the demonstrations.
"I'll put it frankly: United Russia has made a strong showing, stronger than in the December Duma election," Mr Medvedev said at the United Russia headquarters in Moscow based on results from eastern regions, Russian news agencies reported.
"Everybody expected a party fiasco following the December election... Nothing like that has happened," Mr Medvedev said.
He said the elections were "civilised and, as far as I understand, nobody has spotted any significant violations so far."
But opponents accused the Kremlin of using its position to give favoured candidates an unfair advantage by removing competitors from races and pressuring state employees to vote for candidates backed by United Russia.
They also alleged violations in races around the country on election day, including multiple voting and ballot-stuffing.
"It's sad that the situation hasn't changed. The number of violations has not decreased, nor has it increased" compared to previous elections, said Grigory Melkonyants, deputy director of Western-funded vote monitoring group Golos.
"In competitive races violations are conducted without batting an eye. It's nothing new, they continue to conduct ... ballot-stuffing and 'carousels'," he said of a practice in which groups of people cast ballots at several polling stations.
Central Election Commission chief Vladimir Churov said statements by Golos had "nothing to do with reality. We are gathering all the material to further investigate where such a stream of lies is coming from".
The votes included ballots for regional governors in five of Russia's 83 provinces, the first since the Kremlin restored popular elections of regional chiefs, which Mr Putin had scrapped as he tightened control during his 2000-2008 presidency.
The incumbent from United Russia won in the Amur region and partial results showed the party's candidates comfortably ahead in the Novgorod, Belgorod, Ryazan and Bryansk regions, the Central Electoral Commission said.
