Russia votes for change from Putin!!!

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s party may win a reduced majority in Russia’s parliament, partial election results show, forcing it to work with other political groups.

United Russia’s backing fell to 50 percent from 64 percent in 2007, the Moscow-based Central Election Commission said on its website, with votes from 72 percent of precincts counted. The party’s results at yesterday’s election had been estimated at 45.5 percent and 48.5 percent by two exit polls.


“Given the new composition of the Duma, on individual issues and on certain questions, we will have to enter into coalition bloc agreements,” President Dmitry Medvedev told supporters at the party’s campaign headquarters late yesterday. “This is normal, this is parliamentarianism. This is democracy.”


The loss of United Russia’s two-thirds majority, which allowed it to change the Constitution singlehandedly, is the first time the party’s support fell from one nationwide election to the next since it was set up 10 years ago. Putin, 59, next year may be forced to make unpopular cuts in social spending and raise the pension age to balance the budget.


The premier, who plans to return as president next year to give him potentially almost a quarter-century in power if he runs again in 2018, lost support as stalling wage growth and the government’s shortcomings in curbing corruption repelled voters.