United Russia, the party that was formed of supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, by Putin, and for Putin, swept to victory in parliamentary elections Dec. 2 with 63.3 percent of the vote. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) deemed the election "undemocratic" — something that has already led to protests in front of the OSCE's Moscow offices from the youth group Nashi (which is just about as independent of an entity as United Russia). The idea that the Kremlin would win these elections is not exactly a shocker. After all, lately the government not only has dictated political outcomes, but also has gone so far as to issue fiats banning inflation. The Dec. 2 election results in Chechnya showed that 99.4 percent of the voters supposedly supported United Russia. STRATFOR assumes that the remaining 0.6 percent represents either a clerical error or some unfortunates who have since been chained to radiators in Grozny. But what is a bit of a surprise is that the powers-that-be consider the elections a partial failure. The government entered these elections with three goals. The first was for United Russia to obtain at least 60 percent of the popular vote. The second was for Putin to enjoy a strong enough mandate to be able to continue ruling in whatever capacity he desires, even though he cannot run for a third term as president. These two goals were met in spades. But the third goal — to eliminate opposition parties from the Duma — fell short. Two parties garnered enough votes to qualify for Duma seats: the Communists, with 11.7 percent, and the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, with 8.4 percent. The government created a new party that would be perceived as center-left, Just Russia, to complement United Russia, which is pitched as a center-right party. The idea is that just as United Russia subsumed the nationalist vote, Just Russia would absorb the Communist vote. But the result — from the government's view at least — was paltry: Just Russia barely limped past the 7 percent threshold, coming in fourth with 8 percent. The personalities involved in what was supposed to be the loyal opposition are unlikely to get any time in the spotlight. In the 2003 elections another party — Rodina — was formed of the government, by the government and for the government to seize a chunk of the vote from the ultranationalists. Its problem was the opposite of Just Russia's — it did too well, even snatching some votes from United Russia. Note that Rodina did not pass the threshold this time around.