Smash hit

OSCE's main election monitoring body, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, was initially allocated only 75 places for monitors to cover the election. The group eventually boycotted the elections due to what it claimed were excessive restrictions on its work and delays in the issuing of visas for observers.

Russia claims those places were reallocated to other international monitoring organisations, although it is not clear which groups benefitted. It is the first time Russia has imposed limits on the number of observers at elections.

The Foreign Office today joined the US in demanding that Russia investigate the allegations."The Government is concerned about allegations of electoral malpractice which, if proven correct, would suggest that the Russian elections were neither free nor fair," it said, in a statement.

"It is deeply disappointing that Russia prevented the Office for Democracy and the Institute for Human Rights (part of the OSCE) from observing the elections which would have provided expert, independent election monitoring.

"It is vital that the Russian Central Election Commission urgently investigates all allegations of electoral abuses."

As the monitors gave their verdict, it emerged that Mr Lugovoy, who is guaranteed to win a seat as a representative of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democrat (LDPR) party, was likely to be allocated a top security post by his party leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The move will infuriate the UK, which is still seeking his extradition for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

"Lugovoy will work in a committee close to his specialisation. It will be probably the security committee, probably as a deputy head," Mr Zhirinovksy said.

LDPR was one of only four parties which overcame a seven percent barrier to qualify for seats in the lower house of parliament.

Opposition parties today continued to complain about the poll. Garry Kasparov, leader of the Other Russia group, said: “I don’t think anyone has any illusions that these were not the most dishonest and dirtiest elections in all of Russia’s modern history." The former world chess champion spent five days in prison last week for leading an unauthorised march against Mr Putin.

Claims of unfairness were contested today, however, by observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet republics considered overwhelmingly pro-Russian, who said the elections had been free and fair.

And Mr Putin himself issued a statement defending the elections, saying: "The legitimacy of the Russian parliament has without a doubt been increased."

Mr Putin had said that a decisive victory would hand him the moral authority to hold the Government to account once his second term as President expires in March. The scale of his success will now focus attention on how he intends to wield that power in the presidential elections in March.

United Russia had turned the election into a referendum on his popularity as part of a plan to declare him the "national leader" of Russia.

Mr Putin cannot stand for a third consecutive term but many analysts expect him to return to the Kremlin after a short reign as president by a loyal placeman.

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