MOSCOW, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The ruling United Russia party is going to develop a multi-party system in the country in spite of its landslide victory at the latest parliamentary elections, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday.
"In domestic policy, we will certainly have to listen and hear all the political forces, including those that did not pass into parliament," Putin said at a meeting with the government which was broadcasted by local TV.
"We must and will develop a multi-party system in Russia, and support civil society, including patriotically-oriented and non-governmental organizations," he added.
According to preliminary data, the United Russia party backed by Putin won over 54 percent of the vote at Sunday's elections to the State Duma, which will give it a constitutional majority of two-thirds in the lower house of parliament.
The Communist Party came the second with 13.45 percent of the vote. The Liberal Democrats party collected 13.24 percent, while Just Russia won 6.18 percent.
Putin said the result was good for his party, but it only represented a token on confidence that the party had yet to justify.
The result also showed the reaction of Russian citizens to "attempts to exert external pressure on Russia, the threats, the sanctions, and attempts to destabilize the situation in our country from the inside," he noted.
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