NOVO-OGARYOVO, September 27. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin sees United Russia retaining a constitutional majority in the eighth State Duma as a guarantee of continuity and the country's stable development.

"Following the results of the elections, the United Russia faction may be renewed almost by half, almost by 50%," the president said as he met with the leaders of the party’s electoral list. "Of course, the party has losses compared with 2016, but this is inevitable in general," he added.

"And they are inevitable by definition in the conditions when we have gone through the hardships of the pandemic, a decline in citizens’ revenues, reduction of production and a growth in the number of people who have temporarily remained without work," the president stressed.

"However, the party firmly holds its leading positions," Putin stated. According to him, "this is extremely important, moreover given the victory in single-seat constituencies, [United Russia] will once again form the constitutional majority in the State Duma". "This is an important, significant success, a guarantee of the continuity and a stable development of the whole country, and this is important for the country," he noted.

He also recalled that when the results of the recent elections were being summed up, he heard happy ‘hooray’ shouts during broadcasts from the party’s headquarters. However, Putin drew attention to the shades of meaning of the word. "As you know, this victorious battle cry has different meanings. It is one thing when everything has been done, implemented, and we are standing on the ruins of the fortress of the defeated enemy, we are victorious. And it is another thing that we are moving forward, on an offensive, we are resolute to win but have not yet done everything to achieve a final victory," Putin explained.

According to him, "this exactly the situation we are having now. We have a lot of work ahead at the federal level and regional levels, literally in every city and township," Putin added.

Parliamentary election

Elections to the 8th Russian State Duma (lower house) were held over a period of three days - on September 17, 18 and 19. After processing 100% of the voting results, the nation’s ruling party, United Russia, clinched 49.82% of the ballots on the party list. The Communist Party came in second (18.93%), while the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia reaped 7.55%, A Just Russia — For Truth gained 7.46% and New People got 5.32%.