Moscow: President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party has secured a record supermajority in Russia's State Duma, authorities announced Monday following a tightly controlled three-day election in which parties critical of the Kremlin and the war in Ukraine were excluded.

Electoral chief Ella Pamfilova said preliminary results showed United Russia had won 355 of the Duma's 450 seats, surpassing its previous record of 343 seats.

The result gives Putin's party an expanded supermajority, allowing it to amend Russia's constitution if required.

The Kremlin said the outcome of the first parliamentary election since Moscow launched its full-scale military operation in Ukraine in 2022 demonstrated broad public support for Putin, who has been in power since New Year's Eve 1999.

"These indicators, of course, point to the highest level of consolidation within Russian society around the head of state," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists at a briefing.

The election was held under strict political controls, with few observers in Russia expecting United Russia to lose. Moscow has banned criticism of its military campaign in Ukraine, while the only party that campaigned for an end to the war was barred from the election.

Putin had urged Russians to vote in support of troops fighting in Ukraine. Moscow also organised voting in areas of Ukraine it occupies.

Pamfilova said turnout exceeded 59 percent and thanked Russians for participating despite what she described as "psychological pressure on Russia."

The election took place as the conflict with Ukraine entered its fifth year and relations between Russia and the West remained severely strained. On Sunday, the final day of voting, Kyiv launched its biggest drone attack of the war, according to Moscow, killing two people and setting an oil refinery on fire.

"Despite the extreme situation, we were successful in ensuring the maximum security of these elections," Pamfilova told a press conference in Moscow, while thanking security services for ensuring that voting could proceed.

Fifth year of war

The election result is expected to further strengthen Putin's hold over Russia's political system.

The outcome has also fuelled concerns about a possible new military mobilisation. Putin has denied that another mobilisation is being prepared, while Ukrainian authorities have accused Moscow of planning a new call-up in the coming weeks.

Russia's Communist Party finished second with 40 seats, followed by the nationalist LDPR with 25 and the New People party with 20 seats.

The parliamentary vote came amid an intensification of fighting in Ukraine in recent months, with no diplomatic settlement in sight. For the Kremlin, the election was also viewed as an indicator of public sentiment towards the war.

Regional elections were held alongside the Duma vote in several parts of Russia.

In Chechnya, regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov won 99.85 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission. Kadyrov has ruled the Muslim-majority republic for years, while critics and rights groups have documented severe risks for opponents of his rule.

Putin's major political opponents are now in exile, imprisoned or dead. Among them was Alexei Navalny, his most prominent domestic opponent, who died in an Arctic prison in 2024.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas rejected what she called Russia's "so-called" election.

"The Kremlin silenced dissent, barred the only registered party that opposed its war in Ukraine, and shut out international election monitors. The veneer of democracy is all that remains in Russia," Kallas said.