Kasparov after casting his vote. (AP) (BELOW) Finalists of this year’s Miss Russia contest surprised elderly residents when they turned up at the polling booth in Morozovka village to cast their votes. Carrying flowers and wearing red, white and blue — Russia’s national colours as well as those of Putin’s party — they posed for TV and still cameras in sub-zero temperatures. (Reuters)

Moscow, Dec. 2 (Agencies): Millions of Russians cast ballots in parliamentary elections today in a tense vote that followed a campaign marked by intimidation, manipulation and arrests designed to ensure a major victory for President Vladimir Putin’s party.

The result will almost certainly be a landslide, allowing Putin to claim he has a mandate to retain ultimate political power even after he steps down as President next year, as required by the constitution.

Russia’s popular President could probably win decisively without vote rigging, thanks to surging oil prices and a flourishing economy. But voters and activists say authorities have used persuasion, intimidation and incentives to engineer what could be a crushing victory for Putin’s United Russia party.

With 12 per cent of votes counted, United Russia had 62.8 per cent of the vote, with its nearest rivals, the Communists, on 11.5 per cent, central election commission chairman Vladimir Churov said.

For Russia’s increasingly isolated Opposition, however, the election was more melancholy evidence of the country’s drift away from political pluralism and democracy.

“The fact is, they’re not just rigging the vote. They’re raping the democratic system,” said former chess champion and Opposition leader Garry Kasparov. He spoilt his ballot by writing on it “Other Russia”, the name of his Opposition umbrella group.

Later, at a book signing, he predicted Kremlin authoritarianism would cause a “deepening crisis” in Russia, ending in an “economic collapse no less serious than what we saw in 1991 (when the Soviet Union broke down)”.

“Putin is going to have a hard time trying to rule like Stalin and live like Abramovich,” Kasparov said, referring to London-based oil magnate Roman Abramovich, estimated by Forbes to be Russia’s richest man with $18 billion.

“I think the result was pretty much planned in advance,” said Ivan Kudrashov, a voter in his 20s, as he entered Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral. He said he was not certain how he would vote.

Officially, the elections are to decide control of the 450-seat State Duma, or lower house of parliament. But the balloting was portrayed by the Kremlin as a plebiscite on Putin’s nearly eight years as President — with the promise that a major victory for United Russia would allow Putin somehow to remain Russia’s leader beyond next May.

After voting at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Putin told reporters the die was cast. “I’m sure that voters have determined their preferences and now only have to come and vote for the party whose platform seems convincing, vote for those people whom they trust,” he said.

“I voted for United Russia because in the times of Putin I finally felt myself a human being compared to how bad we felt in the dark times of the early 1990s,” said Raisa Tretyakova, 61, from St Petersburg.