Mikhail Gorbachev condemned elections in Russia as a “mockery” of democracy yesterday and accused the Kremlin of ballot rigging.

The last leader of the Soviet Union called for a grassroots campaign to restore democracy, saying that people had lost faith in elections. He spoke as criticism mounted over allegations of widespread fraud in regional elections that produced an overwhelming victory for Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party last week.

“In the eyes of everyone, elections have turned into a mockery of the people and people have great distrust over how their votes are used,” Mr Gorbachev said in an interview with the liberal Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which he co-owns with Alexander Lebedev, the billionaire owner of the London Evening Standard.

“What is democracy when people don’t take part in it?” he asked. “The electoral system has been utterly maimed. We need an alternative. The press and civil groups need to take on themselves the initiative for new election legislation.”

Times Archive, 1991: Gorbachev: 'We must defend democracy'

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Mr Gorbachev said that it was “pointless” to expect reform from the Duma, the Russian parliament — which is entirely controlled by Mr Putin — because United Russia holds two thirds of the 450 seats. The other three parties in the Duma walked out last week for the first time in nine years in protest at what they said was blatant falsification of the regional election results.

Mr Gorbachev said that the rare display of dissent by the Communist, Liberal Democratic and Fair Russia parties showed that there was “no longer any trust in elections”. The Communists are in opposition, but the others are seen as having close links to the Kremlin.

United Russia won almost 80 per cent of seats in the regional elections, including 32 of 35 places on the Moscow City Council.

The leader of the opposition liberal Yabloko party, which failed to win any seats, complained that even his own vote had been stolen. Sergei Mitrokhin voted for his party at his Moscow polling station — but Yabloko had, apparently, received no votes when the district election committee published the station’s results. United Russia was shown to have captured 90 per cent of the ballot. “Probably, the leaders of the district committee decided to show that I do not exist, either as a voter or as a citizen,” said Mr Mitrokhin.

The Duma protest is the most serious political challenge faced by President Medvedev since he took office in May last year. The Kremlin is nervous about potential public unrest as Russians feel the effects of the global economic crisis. Mr Medvedev has refused so far to meet the three party leaders to discuss their complaints.

Mr Gorbachev has grown increasingly outspoken over the perceived failure of Russian democracy, although he has avoided criticising Mr Putin personally. Mr Putin, the Prime Minister, leads United Russia but has refused to become a party member.

In an interview with The Times last month, Mr Gorbachev condemned the Kremlin for failing to fight corruption and solve the murders of prominent critics such as the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who wrote for Novaya Gazeta.

He attacked United Russia in March as a “party of bureaucrats” and “the worst version” of the Soviet Communist Party. He said that the Russian parliament and courts lacked independence.

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