President Vladimir Putin's ruling party, United Russia, has lost more than a third of seats in the Moscow parliament following a volatile election mired with protests.
The poll on Sunday suggests a tactical voting strategy pushed by opponents may have worked, after the exclusion of many candidates triggered mass demonstrations.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demand a fair vote after many opponents were barred from registering, before nearly all the candidates in Moscow were briefly jailed.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose allies were blocked from running, urged the public to vote tactically in order to punish the Kremlin and the ruling United Russia party.
The government clampdown was the biggest in Russia since a wave of protests in 2011-12 when Putin returned to the presidency.
United Russia's Moscow candidates rebranded as independents in an apparent effort to distance themselves from the party, whose popularity is at a more than decade-long low.
Nearly complete election data cited by the RIA news agency suggested Putin's party had lost around one third of the seats it previously controlled.
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RIA said it was on course to control 26 of the Moscow's parliament's 45 seats, enough to retain its majority. In a 2014 election it did much better, winning 28 seats in its own name and a further 10 by independent candidates that it backed.
This time round, RIA said the Communist Party took seats from United Russia, reportedly winning 13, up from five last time. Two other parties, the opposition Yabloko Party and the Fair Russia Party appeared to have won three each, it said.
Local or regional elections took place across all of Russia's 11 time zones on Sunday.
But the main focus was on Moscow after this summer's demonstrations turned into the biggest protest movement in Russia since 2011-2013.
Several videos circulating on social media showing some voters openly stuffing ballot boxes with multiple voting slips.
Navalny himself was arrested during the campaign. He tried to challenge Vladimir Putin for the Russian presidency in the 2018 election but a court stopped his campaign after a fraud conviction seen by many as politically driven.
The Kremlin has long dismissed him as a trouble-maker and urbanite out of touch with ordinary Russians.
But he caused some alarm after he opened campaign offices in 80 cities and towns, most of which had not seen a political life for decades, attracting thousands of supporters.
Putin eventually won the election with 77 per cent of the vote after Navalny was kept off the ballot.
At more than 60 per cent, Putin's own popularity rating is much higher than most Western leaders, though lower than it has been previously.
The former KGB officer won a landslide election victory last year that will keep him in office until 2024.
United Russia's own popularity is suffering from discontent over a move to raise the retirement age however at a time of steadily falling incomes.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
