蜜芽传媒

Critics of Vladimir Putin have criticised Russia's parliamentary elections as a 'sham' after his ruling United Russia party looked set to sweep to victory - despite losing some ground to its opponents. A pre-election crackdown outlawed opposition parties and targeted critical media.

There was also anger after a Smart Voting app devised by jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny was removed from Apple and Google stores on the day that Russians started voting.

Vladimir Ashurkov is executive director of Foundation Against Corruption, founded by Navalny:

"They lost much more by succumbing to pressure from authoritarian country like Russia in removing innocuous applications such as our app which was just telling people how we advise them to vote. I think the reputational damage to them is vast and there's also legal avenues which we will explore against them in the international courts."

(Photo: Members of the local election commission open a ballot box in Podolsk. Credit: EPA)