MOSCOW, Dec 6: Russians go to the polls to elect a new parliament on Sunday, a ballot which threatens to squeeze out the liberal opposition and hand President Vladimir Putin a crushing majority for his United Russia party.

But the Kremlin’s expected victory was overshadowed by a massive suicide bomb blast blamed on Chechen guerillas that killed at least 41 people and injured more than 170 others just 48 hours before the poll.

The main Communist opposition party lags in opinion polls behind United Russia, an alliance of pro-Kremlin factions headed by a close Putin ally, Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov, and dominates the current parliament.

The major point of interest is whether United Russia and its allies will manage to get a two-thirds majority, allowing Mr Putin, if he chooses, to change the constitution to stay in power beyond 2008, when his second term will end if, as expected, he is re-elected in March.

The other uncertainty is whether two small liberal parties, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces (SPS), will make it past the crucial five-percent barrier to gain a guaranteed share of seats in the 450-member State Duma, or lower house of parliament.

A Kremlin-backed leftist-nationalist party, Motherland, has made steady gains in recent weeks, helped by coverage on state-controlled national television, and could edge past both Yabloko and SPS.

The ultra-nationalist LDPR, led by firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky, is also forecast to make it above five per cent, but it has a voting record of slavishly backing the Kremlin.

“SPS and Yabloko are in a catastrophic position,” SPS deputy leader Irina Khakamada said on the eve of the poll this week, warning that the small but vocal liberal voice could be at threat in a rubber stamp parliament.

“The next Duma will pass any law, including constitutional ones, including changing the constitution, which will not be controlled in any way by civil society,” Irina Khakamada said.

One Western research agency predicts that United Russia may win more than 260 seats in the 450-member chamber and with its allies comprise a majority for constitutional change. —AFP