From the FINANCIAL TIMES:
Exit polls from Sunday’s Russian parliamentary elections predicted a stunning defeat for the ruling United Russia party, which possibly stood to lose its majority in the lower house of parliament in what would be a blow to the Kremlin’s political standing.
Vtsiom, a Moscow polling agency, showed exit polls which suggested 48.93 per cent of Russians voted for the party, down from 64.3 per cent in 2007. The drop represents a serious humiliation for the hegemonic party, which has been the target of an opposition fed up with official corruption, having dubbed it the “party of crooks and thieves”…
Gleb Pavlovsky, head of the Foundation for Effective Politics, said that the 48.5 per cent Vtsiom figure, if borne out in vote tallies, represented a serious decline, though United Russia would be likely to maintain a majority of seats in the parliament as the votes of parties that did not pass the 7 per cent barrier would be divided among those that did…
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