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Russian President Vladimir Putin casts his ballot at a polling station during a parliamentary election in Moscow, Russia, September 18, 2016. The ruling United Russia party is expected to win even greater dominance over Russia’s parliament in an election on Sunday, showing that support for President Vladimir Putin is holding up despite sanctions and a deep economic slowdown. The party is able to draw on the support of the other three parties in the federal Duma, and benefits from its association with 63-year-old Putin, who after 17 years in power as either president or prime minister, enjoys a personal approval rating of about 80 percent. Putin does not belong to any party. By contrast, liberal opposition politicians, who have just one sympathetic member in the Duma, complain they are starved of air time, vilified by state media, and their campaigns systematically disrupted by pro-Kremlin provocateurs. Pro-Kremlin politicians deny that charge. (Photo by Grigory Dukor/Reuters)
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