(Image source: Russian Government)

BY NICOLE THOMPSON

ANCHOR LAUREN GORES

Russians took to the polls Sunday for the nation’s parliamentary elections, and while they clinched a victory -- voters dealt prime minister Vladimir Putin and president Dimitri Medvedev’s ruling party a heavy blow. Here’s CNBC.

“Putin’s United Russia party lost 77 seats in parliament after Sunday’s polls. The result means his party still won more seats than all the others put together, but its majority has been cut. The Communist Party was the biggest beneficiary. Their vote almost doubled to around 20 percent.”

The New York Times reports, Russians are becoming frustrated with the ruling United Russia party. The Times talked with one voter who says...

“‘Russians, we are like bears, we are so patient,’ she said. ‘But when our patience ends, then we begin to growl.’”

Prime Minister Vladamir Putin is planning to reclaim the Russian presidency in March. So do these results mean he has a less of a shot at winning? Al Jazeera says, not really.

“His approval rating in the polls is consistently around 67 percent, down some 11 percent from about one year ago, but still an enviable number for any leader in a democratic country. So he is sure to win. But United Russia is clearly on decline. And in the minds of many Russians, in fact, as many as over one third of Russians, it is branded as the party of swindlers and thieves.”

But many media outlets are focusing less on the results-- and more on how those results came about. There have been many accusations of fraud on the part of the ruling United Russia party. Here’s Euronews.

“Rights groups and government opponents say the authorities used legal technicalities to prevent some candidates from taking part in the election and distort the results in favor of the ruling party. (FLASH) One independence monitoring group, Golos, has accused the Kremlin of trying to intimidate it after an official investigation into its activities was launched.”

Officials outside Russia are speaking out against that suspected fraud, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Transcript by Newsy.