Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday praised a poll that placed his allies in firm control of parliament as a boost to democracy but Washington and Europe's top democracy watchdog voiced concern.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 8, 2003 hailed as a step toward democracy the poll that stacked parliament with his allies but Western observers called it 'overwhelmingly distorted' and Washington expressed concern.  [Reuters Graphic]

The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe said the fourth parliamentary election since the Soviet Union's collapse, which crushed Putin's Communist and liberal opponents, was a regression for Russian democracy. The United States said it shared the concern.

The outcome, with the pro-Kremlin United Russia party winning nearly half the State Duma's seats, made the president's re-election for a second term next March a near certainty. It could also give him enough votes to change the constitution.

Putin's backers say the majority will hand him more powers to push economic reform and fight corruption. Critics fear democracy is in danger after a new nationalist party surged into the lower house and two liberal parties were all but wiped out.

"The election is another step in strengthening democracy in the Russian Federation," Putin told senior officials.

But the rights and democracy watchdog OSCE said United Russia had inordinate access to state resources.

"In this election the enormous advantage of incumbency and access to state equipment, resources and buildings led to the election result being overwhelmingly distorted," said Bruce George, president of the OSCE's parliamentary assembly.

"It is even more regrettable that the main impression of the overall electoral process is that it was one of regression in the democratization process of this country."

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "We share those concerns." Of particular concern, he said, were the "media environment and the use of government resources."

KREMLIN RETORTS

Stung by the remarks, the Kremlin fought back.

Interfax news agency quoted a Kremlin source as saying authorities "truly do not understand" the criticism.

"The experience of the latest U.S. elections hardly gives the Americans the right to make such comments," the source said, referring to the lengthy disputes in Florida during the 2000 election in which George W. Bush became U.S. president.

A Kremlin statement said British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had congratulated Putin on the staging of the election.

The leader of the Communist Party, facing a second death after its rebirth in the chaos of the 1990s, called the election a farce and accused the Kremlin of rigging the vote.

"You are all participants in a revolting spectacle which for some reason is called an election," Gennady Zyuganov said.

Created in 1999 to help Putin's rise to power, United Russia won 37.1 percent of the vote. The opposition communists had only 12.7 percent, well down from the 24 percent they won in 1999.

Nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky's party, which mostly backs the Kremlin, won 11.6 percent and Motherland, seen by many as a Kremlin creation to take communist votes, had 9.1 percent.

Pro-Kremlin deputies could get the two-thirds majority for constitutional change. Putin has ruled out any suggestions that he might alter the rules to seek a third term, but has spoken of plans to overhaul national and regional institutions.

Sunday's vote reflected support for his efforts to restore central control since succeeding Boris Yeltsin in 2000 and ending the chaos of the early reform years.

"Yesterday's election shows what the Russian people actually think: they are stridently nationalist, want wealth redistributed and have little interest in liberal or democratic values," Aton brokerage said in a research note.

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