Vladimir Putin has nabbed a landslide victory in Russia’s recent ‘rigged’ parliamentary election amid rising fears he will attack Nato in the coming months.

There are concerns he will use the ‘sham’ result to double down on his war in Ukraine, with officials claiming the results could give him the backing he needs for further military aggression.

Putin cast his vote online in the country’s State Duma elections last week, prompting plenty to mock his ‘vintage’ computer skills.

There have been repeated attacks by Russia near the Nato border, with countries surrounding war-torn Ukraine remaining vigilant to potential escalation.

Putin’s United Russia party scored almost 58% of the vote with almost all ballots counted, a far better result than five years ago.

This has given the party an overwhelming majority in parliament, with competitors claiming the vote was rigged.

Nikolai Rybakov, the leader of the country’s only anti-war party Yabloko – which was almost totally banned from taking part in the poll – said he would have won second place had the vote been fair.

Rybakov said: ‘We would have secured second place in the State Duma elections.’

Without the Supreme Court ban on Yabloko, he claimed he would have humiliated Putin and shown a lack of overwhelming support for his war and associated repression in Russia.

‘It is a fact: our campaign became a political event of global significance,’ he said. ‘Millions of people publicly declared their support for Yabloko – for peace, freedom, and a life free from fear.’

Veteran Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov accused the Kremlin of manipulation to ensure its majority in the State Duma, or Russian parliament, acting as a rubber stamp for Putin.

Zyuganov’s party came in second place with around 14% of the vote.

Political analyst Kirill Rogov accused the Putin regime of a 55-55 strategy – manipulating the poll so the turnout was at least 55% and the share of the vote for United Russia at least 55%.

‘Putin and the hardliners intervened in the Duma campaign,’ he claimed. ‘They decided that the elections should become a demonstration of support for Putin’s course of escalation.’

Among the absurd results, Putin’s repressive warlord Ramzan Kadyrov had more than 99% of the vote as he stood again as head of Chechnya.

There are now huge fears Putin will stage a new mobilisation campaign. Either openly or by stealth, to send yet more men to his war where 500,000 have already died with another million wounded.

Western intelligence agencies have predicted such a strategy after the election was over.

And the head of the Czech Republic’s BIS security service Michal Koudelka warned in an interview with The Guardian that a small-scale invasion of Nato territory bordering Russia could come in ‘months, not years’ along with more drone incursions as seen in recent weeks.

‘It’s possible. It could involve a limited incursion, false-flag provocations, a massive influence campaign,’ he said.

‘A lot of people are doing everything they can to make sure this doesn’t happen.”

Ukraine’s biggest attack

The final day of the three-day election was marred by Ukraine’s biggest attack of the war on the Moscow region.

Overnight, Ukraine released footage of its domestically produced Flamingo cruise missiles launched towards the Russian capital for the first time – in a warning that Putin faces more such strikes if he continues to hold out against a peace agreement.

But Russia staged new brutal attacks on Ukraine, signalling the Russian dictator has no intention of halting his war.

In Zaporizhzhia, an historic university building was destroyed in a strike.

Other civilian facilities, including apartment buildings and a major shopping centre, were struck in scenes of carnage.

A major fire ignited in warehouses at Boyarka, near Kyiv, following Russian strikes. A logistics hub and gas distribution station were targeted.

Hours after a telephone appeal from Donald Trump to avoid strikes on Russian diesel production facilities in Russia amid a world shortage, Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces hit Ufa Oil Refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region.

The Ufa refinery produces diesel fuel, as well as petrol, aviation fuel, fuel oil and liquefied petroleum gases. Kyiv believes this is the best way of harming Putin’s war machine.

In the Trump-Zelensky call, ‘the word diesel came up many times’. The pair are due to meet in New York this week.

The election was hit by fraud allegations of ballot stuffing and other irregularities seen as being in favour of United Russia.

In one polling station, ballots pre-marked for United Russia were seen.

Voters on Sunday were told – falsely – that they had already cast their ballots.

In Moscow, huge queues formed on Sunday amid a mysterious breakdown in the electronic voting system, which has made it impossible to issue ballots.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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