Russian election

With 93% of the votes counted, the party has secured 54.2% of ballots and 343 seats in the 450-member parliament, officials say.

Mr Putin said his party had "achieved a very good result", however the turnout was a record low 47%.

The Communist party and the nationalist LDPR both secured just over 13%.

A Just Russia party gained just over 6% of the votes. All four parties had dominated the last parliament, or State Duma.

'Utmost regret'

Mr Putin said: "We can say with certainty that the party has achieved a very good result."

The nationalist LDPR and the Communist party are way behind United Russia, with about 14-16% each.

Liberal opposition parties appear to have failed to pass the 5% threshold needed for party-list representation.

However, the exit polls say though they could still get seats in individual constituencies.

A VTsIOM exit poll gave United Russia, led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, 44.5%, with the Public Opinion Foundation putting its total higher, at 48.7%.

Far Eastern regions are the first to vote en masse in a country spanning 11 time zones, though some ballots were cast early in remote areas.

Evidence of vote-rigging sparked mass protests after the 2011 election.

For the first time, Russia is holding elections to its parliament in Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a move condemned internationally.

Voters will choose 450 MPs in the State Duma (lower house), for the next five years. The outgoing Duma had just a handful of MPs opposed to Mr Putin.