Russian voters deal Putin an election blow

MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin’s ruling  party suffered a big drop in support in a parliamentary election  today, exit polls showed, as voters  signalled their growing  unease with his domination of Russian politics before a planned  return to the presidency next year.
Two exit polls suggested Putin’s party, United Russia, would  win 45.5 and or 48.5 percent of the votes in the election to the  State Duma compared with 64.3 percent in 2007 and that it could  struggle even to hold on to a majority in the chamber.
The vote was widely seen as a test of Putin’s personal  authority after signs that Russians have started to tire of his  tough-guy image, built up by his crushing of a rebellion in  rebel Chechnya and antics such as bare-chested horse riding.
“Russia has a new political reality even if they rewrite  everything,” said Sergei Obukhov, a parliamentary deputy of the  Communist Party, which made considerable gains, its vote almost  doubling to around 20 percent, according to the exit poll.
A United Russia leader, Boris Gryzlov, looked stunned when  he addressed reporters after voting ended but claimed victory  and said: “We are watching and hope that we shall get a majority  of the mandate in the State Duma”.
“We can say that United Russia remains the ruling party.”
But there can be little to cheer Putin, who has dominated  Russian politics since becoming president in 2000 and serving in  the post until 2008. In that year he was obliged to step down,  the constitution preventing him serving more than two  consecutive terms.
Official results after about 10 percent of the votes had been  counted showed United Russia with 45.9 percent of the vote and  the communists with 20.7 percent.
The exit poll did not make clear how the 450 seats in the  Duma would be shared out under complicated calculations. But one  poll projected United Russia, which has dominated the chamber  since 2003, would have only 220 seats.
The communist party emerged in second place in both polls  with considerable gains over 2007.
Putin remains by far the most popular politician in the vast  country of more than 140 million people but there have been  signs that some Russians are wearying of his cultivated  strong-man image after 12 years in power.