The main party backing Vladimir Putin is well ahead in parliamentary elections, early exit polls indicate today amid a torrent of allegations about vote-rigging.
Polls from the Russian Far East suggested pro-Kremlin United Russia had between 40 and 45 per cent of the vote with the Communists in second place on around 18 per cent.
The ultranationalist Liberal Democrats were nudging ten percent, while other parties struggled in single figures.
Another exit poll based on voting in Moscow and St Petersburg suggested United Russia had 44 per cent with the opposition Communists on 21 per cent.
But shocking videos were revealed allegedly showing illegal rigging in favour of the main pro-Putin party which pundits expect to win a clear majority.
In Vladivostok, a camera behind a plant showed an official apparently marking many previously blank ballot papers.
In Belovo, Kemerovo region, a hidden figure behind a woman in yellow repeatedly stuffs ballots into a polling box.
In Bryansk region, two women are seen packing ballots into a box, as laughter is heard in the polling station.
In Pyotr Dubrava, Samara region at polling station 706 an election official - marked in a red frame - is seen filling in papers before audaciously walking over to place them in a ballot box
In Belovo, Kemerovo region, a hidden figure behind a woman I yellow repeatedly stuffs ballots into a polling box
A medical worker, left, helps a patient to cast his ballot at a hospital during the Parliamentary elections in Voronezh, Russia
In Pyotr Dubrava, Samara region at polling station 706 an election official is seen filling in papers before audaciously walking over to place them in a ballot box.
Most of the 'abuse' went ahead in full view of CCTV cameras.
All these cases are highlighted by opposition sites as evidence of rigging in the key parliamentary election.
There were reports of voters being bribed in TransBaikal, - where one said he was offered 150 roubles (£1.50) for his vote as well as Yakutia and Novosibirsk.
Elsewhere there were claims of people driving around polling stations to vote multiple times.
At a polling station in Yakutia, some 30 per cent of ballot papers had not arrived,
