The ruling United Russia party swept regional elections over the weekend but, unlike in disputed elections last October, three other parties also managed to score minor victories, according to preliminary results released Monday.
President Dmitry Medvedev in January called on regional authorities to allow people to vote freely, and Monday's results show that the authorities have obeyed, although the vote can still not be considered fair, political analysts said.
"The falsifications have become less conspicuous," said Dmitry Oreshkin, an independent political analyst. "It was clear after the October elections that large-scale falsifications could cause mass public discontentment."
United Russia lost several constituencies in Sunday's elections, including the mayoral seat in the city of Irkutsk.
Viktor Kondrashov, who was nominated by the Communist Party, was elected Irkutsk mayor with about 62 percent of the vote, more than double the 28 percent collected by United Russia candidate Sergei Serebrennikov, the Central Election Commission said.
Originally, two candidates affiliated with United Russia had planned to run, but one of them, Anton Romanov, was barred by a court over technicalities.
Unrest has been simmering in the Irkutsk region over government plans to reopen the Baikalsk Paper and Pulp Mills, which will dump waste into Lake Baikal, the world's biggest fresh-water lake. Thousands of people rallied in protest in Irkutsk last month.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who heads United Russia, approved the reopening in January, and he defended the decision Monday.
"We should look at this issue carefully, without any whining or noise, but from a viewpoint of the state," he said in a speech to the Russian Geographical Society. "You know how much we care about Baikal."
United Russia conceded Kondrashov's victory in Irkutsk and stressed that he was not a member of the Communist Party.
Senior United Russia official Andrei Vorobyov noted that 33 of the 35 seats in the city's legislature are occupied by United Russia deputies. "We will guide Kondrashov's work and recommend that he focus on resolving certain problems," Vorobyov said in a statement published on United Russia's web site.
Kondrashov, 48, a deputy director of the Irkutsk-based Takota construction company, told journalists Monday that he was not planning to join any party.
"My party is Irkutsk's residents," Kondrashov said, adding that he does not see the United Russia deputies as rivals.
"It is important now to teach the Irkutsk administration how to earn money," he said, Interfax reported.
United Russia suffered another loss in Ust-Ilimsk, a city of 97,000 residents in the northwest corner of the Irkutsk region. Just Russia candidate Vladimir Tashkinov won 72 percent of the vote, far ahead of United Russia candidate Irina Bondarenko, who won 20 percent.
Overall turnout in Sunday's elections in 76 regions reached 42.6 percent, the Central Election Commission said.
The Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia —whose deputies briefly boycotted the State Duma over the results of the October regional elections — seemed content with Sunday's vote. The three parties won seats in all eight regional legislatures.
United Russia collected the most votes in the eight regions, but it failed to get more than 50 percent in many of them, including the Altai region (43 percent), the Khabarovsk region (48 percent), the Kurgan region (45 percent) and the Sverdlovsk region (40 percent).
But in a result reminiscent of the October elections, United Russia won 65 percent in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District.
In Sochi, where Communists had complained ahead of the elections of fraud through early voting, United Russia won 45 of the 50 seats in the city's legislature. The Liberal Democratic Party took two seats, the Communists got one, and independent candidates won the last two.
Public support for United Russia remains high, according to a national survey released by state-run pollster VTsIOM on Monday.
A total of 53 percent of respondents said they supported United Russia, about the same number as in a similar survey conducted in March 2009, VTsIOM said.
The survey also indicated that Medvedev's job approval rating has grown to 73 percent, an increase of 4 percent since last March.
Putin's rating, which dropped from 79 to 73 percent over the winter, inched up to 74 percent this month, the same level as last year.
Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov said Monday that United Russia owes its victory to its leader, Putin. "If Vladimir Putin weren't leading the party, United Russia would lose everywhere," Mironov said, Interfax reported.