Putin’s party set to retain parliament majority after polls

Russian President Vladimir Putin's party was set on Sept. 19 to retain a majority in parliament on the last day of three-day elections in which most Kremlin critics were barred from running.

The vote comes in the wake of an unprecedented crackdown on the opposition this year, with Russian authorities jailing Putin's best-known domestic foe Alexei Navalny and banning his organizations as "extremist".

In the lead-up to this weekend's vote, all of his top allies were arrested or had fled the country, with anyone associated with his groups kept from running in the parliamentary and local polls scheduled to close at 8:00 pm on Sept. 19.

"These essentially aren't elections. People in effect have no choice," 43-year-old businessman Vladimir Zakharov told AFP in Russia's second city, Saint Petersburg.

The elections were also marred by claims of censorship and rampant ballot stuffing.

As voting kicked off on Sept. 17, Apple and Google caused an uproar among Russia's opposition after they removed Navalny's "Smart Voting" app, which showed supporters which candidate they should back to unseat Kremlin-aligned politicians.

Sources familiar with Google and Apple's decision told AFP the move was taken under pressure from Russian authorities, including threats to arrest the tech giants' local staff.

By late Sept. 17, the popular Telegram messenger had also removed Navalny's "Smart Voting" bot, and by the early hours of Sunday Google Docs and YouTube videos containing the lists of the recommended candidates had also been blocked.

Navalny's team said that Google, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP, had complied with demands made by Russia's media regulator Roskomnadzor.

They also swiftly...