Pro-Kremlin Bloc Leads Rivals in Russian Vote

MOSCOW — Buoyed by popular support for the war in Chechnya, three political parties allied with the Kremlin made a strong showing in national legislative elections Sunday, capturing 40% of the party slate vote.

With 57% of the vote counted, President Boris N. Yeltsin had scored a major political victory by neutralizing former Prime Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov and other rivals while securing the tamest Duma, or lower house of parliament, of his presidency.

In a surprising show of strength, the Unity bloc, formed just two months ago by Yeltsin strategists, was neck and neck with the Communist Party for first place among the 26 party slates in the race.

The success of the Kremlin’s allies means that the Communists--who have obstructed passage of many of the economic policies espoused by pro-market forces--could be seriously weakened in the next Duma.

“It is obvious that the situation in Russia has changed dramatically,” said Duma Deputy Konstantin Borovoy, who was waiting to learn if he had been reelected. “The Communist hindrance will be done away with, and this means a fantastic opportunity for the nation.”

Under Russia’s complex election rules, the party slates that receive more than 5% of the vote will divide up half of the Duma’s 450 seats. The remaining seats will be awarded to the top vote-getters in individual districts.

Among those reported winning in district races were Kremlin insider and billionaire Boris A. Berezovsky; his close ally, oil tycoon Roman Abramovich; and former Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin. It was too early to say, however, which parties would harvest the most seats in the districts.

Both the Unity bloc and the Communist Party were receiving more than 25% of the party vote. It appeared that three other factions also would pass the 5% barrier: the Fatherland-All Russia slate, headed by Primakov; the Union of Right Forces, headed by former Prime Minister Sergei V. Kiriyenko; and the Zhirinovsky Bloc, headed by ultranationalist Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky.

The pro-market Yabloko party, headed by Grigory A. Yavlinsky--the only major party to offer any criticism of Russia’s war in the southern republic of Chechnya--was barely hanging on above the 5% threshold, but appeared likely to retain its place in the Duma.

“Amid absolute war hysteria on the rise in the country, it was very important for us to declare our position on the situation in the North Caucasus and in such a manner to warn the society against the looming danger,” Yavlinsky said as the votes were being counted. “Today, the entire political structure of our country is simply based on what is happening in the North Caucasus.”

Indeed, the war that began in earnest in October when the government sent troops into separatist Chechnya has turned Russian politics upside down. The war, ostensibly intended to wipe out Chechen “terrorists” responsible for bombing apartment buildings in Russian cities, has been extremely popular with Russians tired of seeing their country beaten down.

In addition to the Unity bloc, one faction that appeared to reap the political benefit of the war was the Union of Right Forces, which is allied with the Kremlin and espouses a pro-market ideology.

The party is identified most strongly with ex-government officials such as Kiriyenko and former Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly B. Chubais, who together presided over last year’s national financial collapse. However, by backing the war and presenting an alternative to Yabloko, the Union of Right Forces seemed to have won a place in the Duma.

In addition to the Unity bloc and the Union of Right Forces, the Kremlin will be able to count on the Zhirinovsky Bloc. Although Zhirinovsky has earned a reputation as a fanatic nationalist, his party has been one of Yeltsin’s most consistent supporters on important votes in the Duma. Some critics allege that’s because party members receive large cash payments in exchange for crucial votes.

While the three parties have different constituencies and sometimes conflicting ideologies, the 40% share of the party slate seats they won gives the Kremlin a formidable bloc of votes.

One of the biggest election surprises was the poor showing of the Fatherland-All Russia bloc, headed by Primakov and Moscow Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov.

Primakov, who was fired by Yeltsin in May, was seen only a few months ago as the most likely candidate to become the next president. But he was unable to offer a program to counter the war in Chechnya and the support it generated for the current prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin.

“Fatherland’s performance is so poor because they chose a stupid and myopic strategy,” said sociologist and pollster Gleb O. Pavlovsky. “They wanted to ride the wave of public discontent--a cheap shot that resulted in an utter fiasco. They were wrong in thinking that to get into the Duma, all that was needed was cheap popularity. They chose to lash out at the Kremlin and Yeltsin personally rather than offering something constructive of their own.”

Despite Fatherland-All Russia’s poor showing nationwide, Luzhkov was winning reelection as Moscow mayor with 70% of the vote, thus keeping one of the Kremlin’s harshest critics in a key position of power.

“We are in a very good mood, mainly because Mayor [Luzhkov] won by such a margin,” Primakov told reporters. “I think that in parliament, we will extend a hand to all healthy forces.”

In a sign of how quickly politics changes in Russia, the apparent Kremlin victory came just seven months after the aging president was nearly impeached by the Duma for starting an earlier war in Chechnya that lasted from 1994 to 1996 and ended in a Russian defeat.

The Duma campaign was marked by mudslinging, media bias and big expenditures that need never be reported to the public. And on Sunday, some people were questioning whether the results were accurate, especially with Unity’s unexpectedly large showing and Fatherland-All Russia’s unexpectedly poor showing.

“Bearing in mind the methods used during the election campaign by those who stand behind Unity, one really starts to doubt the voting was fair,” said Alexei K. Pushkov, a political commentator for a pro-Luzhkov television station. “The figures are so suspicious that the probability of falsification becomes increasingly high.”

Yeltsin, casting his vote earlier in the day, seemed to sense that a change was coming.

“Russia needs a Duma that will pass laws and not one that engages in political maneuvering,” he said. “I hope that the next Duma will be a good parliament.”

Sergei L. Loiko and Alexei V. Kuznetsov of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.