Putin's party trounces weak opposition The outcome in Russian elections is rarely in doubt, but the important thing is how you lose. For Vadim Potomsky, a Communist candidate for governor of Bryansk region in Russia's south-west, the main thing was decorum. Elections in Russia are completely fair. They are open to any political competition," the heavy-set former radio engineer told the Financial Times by telephone. Running on an openly pro-Stalin ticket, Mr Potomsky took second place with 29 per cent to the incumbent governor from the ruling United Russia party, who took 66 per cent. Independent monitors in Bryansk detected "massive voting with absentee ballots" and "systematic expulsion of election observers from polling stations," according to the Moscow business daily Kommersant. But Mr Potomsky had little criticism of the authorities. "Our lawyers are taking a look at these reports, and we'll make a decision what to do later," he said. The ability to lose gracefully was at a premium among anyone running against United Russia, which supports President Vladimir Putin, in any of the 4,800 regional and local elections that took place on Sunday. In every contest that counted, the party trounced competitors by huge margins in elections with record low turnout. It was the latest test for the political opposition, which became a force last December following parliamentary elections in which allegations of fraud were widespread. Polls show United Russia to be vulnerable - support for the ruling party is at its lowest ever - while trust in Mr Putin is also sliding. However, the opposition failed to exploit this, and made no attempt to mobilise protests after these elections, which were as flawed as those in December, according to monitoring agency Golos. "The opposition failed to energise people for these elections," said Masha Lipman, a political expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center. They are not a national political force yet, they are still concentrated in the big cities. Analysts distinguish between the so-called "loyal opposition" to the Kremlin, such as the Communist party, which has parliamentary seats and a stake in the status quo, and the "non-systemic opposition" which spilled on to Moscow's streets last December. For communists such as Mr Potomsky, coming in second is a good career move. "Running in an election can be good for your career, but one should never show too much enthusiasm," wrote the opposition weekly New Times last week. The liberal independent opposition, with no seats in parliament and so no stake in the process, do not make such good losers. However, they found it near impossible to even get on the ballot, according to Alexander Kynev, a director at Information Policy Development Foundation, a Russian think-tank. The ratio of candidates nominated to those registered to vote was nearly four to one - one of the worst yet, he said. One of the few places where the "non-systemic" opposition managed to stand was in mayoral elections in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, where environmentalist Yevgenia Chirikova came second with 18 per cent of the vote to Oleg Shakhov's 48 per cent. She has filed 50 complaints of violations, and her supporters put a video online detailing melees at polling stations, where she accuses the authorities of gross falsification. Ms Chirikova declined to comment on Monday. United Russia officials could not resist gloating about the results. Alexei Cheshakov, a senior United Russia official, said the results dispelled the "myth" that the party was in decline. The results proved the contrary; that United Russia is making a comeback and winning new cities, especially major administrative centres. And we hope that this tendency will remain and develop," he told journalists. But turnout in elections is falling. "The only people who could be motivated to vote were United Russia supporters," Ms Lipman said. Everyone else just stayed home.