Parliamentary Elections in Russia in Photos

Electoral officials walk to houses in the village of Gryaz during Russia’s parliamentary election. Vladimir Putin’s ruling party could see its vast parliamentary majority cut back on Sunday in elections widely seen as a test of his popularity ahead of an expected return to the presidency early next year. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

A man (2nd R) casts his ballot in his house in Gryaz, Russia. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Elizaveta Semenova is helped by her daughter to fill in a ballot at her home in the village of Oster, Russia, Dec. 4. The ballot box has a sign reading: “Election” and the Smolensk region emblem. Russians cast their ballots with muted enthusiasm in national parliamentary elections Sunday, a vote that opinion polls indicate could water down the strength of the party led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, despite the government’s relentless marginalization of opposition groups. (Sergei Grits / AP)

A woman reads a ballot in the western Russian village of Klukino. (Reuters)

People queue to vote outside the Russian consulate in the South Ossetian city of Tskhinvali, Georgia. (Reuters)

Russian navy sailors queue to cast their ballots at a polling station at the Russian Fleet base during a parliamentary elections, in Sevastopol, Ukraine, Dec. 4. (Andrew Lubimov / AP)

Russian police detain an opposition activist during a protest against vote rigging in St. Petersburg, Russia. Rival parties and election monitors, which have suffered from government crackdowns, alleged significant violations at the polls. (Dmitry Lovetsky/Associated Press)

Police detain an activist during a protest rally by opposition group “Another Russia” in central Moscow, Dec. 4. Russians voted on Sunday in parliamentary polls seen as a test of Vladimir Putin’s personal authority ahead of a planned return to the presidency, and an electoral watchdog complained of “massive cyber attacks” on a website alleging violations. (Reuters)

Russian police officers block Red Square, with St. Basil’s Cathedral in the background, to prevent pro-democracy protesters from entering, in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 4. (Ivan Sekretarev / AP)

Russian opposition supporters shout during a rally in central Moscow on December 5, 2011. Thousands of Russians rallied Monday in central Moscow and Saint Petersburg protesting violations in legislative elections that handed victory to Vladimir Putin’s ruling party with a reduced majority. (Alexey Sazonov / AFP – Getty Images)

Russian Communists Party supporters wear scarves with the color and emblem of the Communist Party gather together to protest against official results of the parliaments elections in Moscow on Monday..The Communist Party appeared to benefit most from the protest vote, getting nearly 20 percent, up from less than 12 percent four years ago. The socialist Just Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party led by mercurial nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky are also expected to increase their representation in the Duma; both have generally voted with United Russia, and the Communists pose only token opposition. (Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP)

Russian police line up during an opposition protest in central Moscow December 5, 2011. Several thousand people protested in central Moscow on Monday against what they said was a fraudulent parliamentary election, shouting . (Reuters)

A riot policeman detains an opposition supporter during a rally in central Moscow on Monday. (Andrey Smirnov / AFP – Getty Images)

A protester is detained by police officers during continued protests against vote rigging in St.Petersburg, Russia. Police said they arrested more than 100 protesters who tried to stage an unsanctioned rally in Moscow and about 70 others in St. Petersburg. (Dmitry Lovetsky/Associated Press)

A woman reads a ballot during the parliamentary election in the western Russian village of Klukino, some 290 miles from Moscow, on Dec. 4, 2011. Russians voted on Sunday in parliamentary polls seen as a test of Vladimir Putin’s personal authority ahead of a planned return to the presidency. (Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters)

An election official, center, sits inside a car with a ballot box she took to the villagers who were unable to come to the polling station in the village of Arzinka, some 312 miles east of Moscow on Dec. 4, 2011. (Pavel Golovkin / AP)

Yuri Zaitsev votes at his home in the village of Oster, 237 miles west of Moscow, Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011, as an election commission official looks on, left. (Sergei Grits / AP)

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sits to get registered at a polling station in Moscow on Dec. 4, 2011. (Alexei Nikolsky / Ria Novosti via Reuters)