Final results of Russia's election show the Kremlin party won a record number of parliament seats

Full results released Friday from Russia's first wartime parliamentary election showed that the tightly orchestrated vote had further cemented the Kremlin's overwhelming political control of the country.

United Russia, the main Kremlin party, will get more than three-fourths of the seats in the State Duma, a record high, according to returns released by the Central Election Commission.

Virtually any genuine opposition parties or candidates were excluded from running in the Sept. 18-20 election. A massive state media campaign and tight control over the voting process allowed the Kremlin to strengthen its political dominance despite Russia's economic troubles and long-range Ukrainian drone attacks.

Nearly 60% of the 111 million eligible voters turned out in the three-day balloting, the most for a parliamentary election in more than a decade. Authorities had spread the voting over three days and allowed online voting in some regions to boost participation.

The parliamentary election was the first since President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the first to include residents of four regions of that country that were seized and illegally annexed by Moscow later that year.

Voting also was held in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Kyiv denounced the voting in those regions as illegal.

Russia didn’t invite election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Election commission chief Ella Pamfilova said United Russia got 349 out of 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower chamber. It polled 58% of the ballot for the 225 seats apportioned by parties and also won 209 single-seat races that fill the other half of the chamber.

On Wednesday, Putin declared that the election results were a show of public support for his policies.

Several smaller parties representing the “systemic opposition” that vote in line with the Kremlin on all key issues won 97 seats, and the remaining four seats were filled by regional officials who ran without a party affiliation.

Pamfilova said 46 Ukraine war veterans were elected, including 41 from United Russia.

“The experience of our heroes is in demand; the voting results have clearly confirmed this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “They will make a maximum contribution to the shaping of various initiatives.”

The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political entity that dared to publicly criticize the war, was removed from the ballot last month by Russia’s Supreme Court. It only had a few dozen candidates in the single-seat races and none of them won a seat.

The election took place against the backdrop of incessant Ukrainian drone attacks. Officials said air defenses downed over 1,100 Ukrainian drones, including 450 drones heading for Moscow on the final day of voting in what Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described as “the largest ever” attack on the capital. The attack, which damaged an oil refinery and a residential building, killed three people and injured 38 in the wider Moscow region, officials said.

Pamfilova said six poll workers were killed in Ukrainian attacks and 75 polling stations were damaged or destroyed by shelling.

The first session of the newly elected lower house has been set for Wednesday. Russian media reports said its speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, is expected to retain his position.

Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia's Central Election Commission, holds a moment of silence in memory of the deceased members of the electoral commissions, during reporting of the official results of Russia's parliamentary elections at the commission's meeting in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia's Central Election Commission, applauds after reporting the official results of Russia's parliamentary elections at the commission's meeting in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

The official results of Russia's parliamentary elections are seen on the screen during the Central Election Commission meeting in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia's Central Election Commission, center, reports the official results of Russia's parliamentary elections at the commission's meeting in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

It took over two years and some legal wrangling, but Italy’s second-busiest passenger airport was finally named on Friday after the late former Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

The ceremony included the unveiling of a silver plaque at the airport, with Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini and Berlusconi's family members among those attending.

The billionaire media mogul-turned-prime minister had dominated Italian politics for three decades and still casts a long shadow. He was admired by some as a charismatic statesman who put Italy on the world stage but reviled by others as a populist who used political power for personal gain.

Multiple criminal cases had involved Berlusconi, but most ended in dismissals. Investigations targeted the tycoon’s steamy so-called “bunga bunga” parties involving young women and minors, or his businesses. Only one led to a conviction that stuck — a tax fraud case stemming from a sale of movie rights in his business empire, for which he performed community service.

The decision to name the airport for him generated opposition when it was announced in 2024, including from Milan's City Hall, which filed suit to halt the dedication. Three nearby towns in the Lombardy region did the same. They argued that cities, not the civil aviation authority, have the power to bestow names to places, and that law prohibits establishing monuments to people until 10 years after their death.

Berlusconi was born and raised in Milan, where he built his media empire and owned the AC Milan soccer team, and also died in the city in 2023, at the age of 86.

In April, a Lombardy court ruled against the cities, declaring their challenges inadmissible, and clearing the way for dedication of the Milan Malpensa Silvio Berlusconi airport.

Some of Italy’s other big airports are named for historically famous Italians, such as Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport, Venice’s Marco Polo airport and Verona’s airport, named for the Latin poet Valerio Catullo.

Malpensa is Italy’s second-busiest, with 31 million passengers passing through last year, compared to the 51 million passengers who transited Rome’s international airport, according to the aviation authority. Its IATA airport code will remain MXP.

Located in Italy’s industrial heartland, Malpensa far exceeds Rome in terms of cargo transport.

Passengers arrive at Italy’s second-busiest airport, Milan Malpensa, that was officially named after the late former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, in Somma Lombardo, Italy, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (Marco Ottico/LaPresse via AP)

Italy’s second-busiest airport, Milan Malpensa, is officially named after the late former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, in Somma Lombardo, Italy, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (Marco Ottico/LaPresse via AP)

FILE - Silvio Berlusconi, leader of center-right, populist Forza Italia exits a voting booth before casting his ballot at a polling station in Milan, Italy, Sept. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)

Italy’s second-busiest airport, Milan Malpensa, is officially named after the late former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, in Somma Lombardo, Italy, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (Marco Ottico/LaPresse via AP)