Mr. Putin cannot run again because of constitutional term limits, though United Russia’s strong performance on Sunday renewed speculation that he might ask Parliament to amend the Constitution.  If he does not, what he will do after March remains a mystery. He has said he wants to continue wielding influence over the nation, but how he would do that — and what his relationship would be with the next president — was unclear.  Even as Mr. Putin was hailing the election, European monitors were taking a different view, contending that there had been “a clear abuse of power and a clear violation of international commitments and standards.”  Balloting, the monitors said in a statement, “took place in an atmosphere which seriously limited political competition and with frequent abuse of administrative resources, media coverage strongly in favor of the ruling party, and an election code whose cumulative effect hindered political pluralism.”  Luc van den Brande of Belgium, leader of the mission from the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, said Mr. Putin had improperly used the Kremlin to help United Russia. “There are a lot of concerns about the evolution of democracy in the country,” Mr. van den Brande said.  Last month, the most prominent international group of election monitors — experts who work for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — abandoned plans to observe the vote, citing Russian restrictions that made their work impossible. Parliamentarians affiliated with the organization, as well as others from the Council of Europe, decided to come on a separate mission.  A member of the Central Election Commission, Igor Borisov, dismissed the monitors’ conclusions. He told the Interfax news agency: “It’s a political order. Political expediency dictated from overseas prevailed over the principles of monitoring.”  Still, there was no shortage of detractors inside Russia.  The head of the Communist Party, Gennadi A. Zyuganov, said, “The elections were so dirty, and the numerous violations were so outrageous, that only a blind or deaf person could not have seen or heard them.”  With the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party clearing the 7 percent threshold to enter Parliament, one of its new leaders, Andrei K. Lugovoi, is expected to receive a seat.  Mr. Lugovoi is the former K.G.B. officer accused in Britain in the fatal radiation poisoning of Alexander V. Litvinenko. Britain has sought Mr. Lugovoi’s extradition, but Russia has refused. Once he enters Parliament, Mr. Lugovoi will have immunity from prosecution in Russia.  Among the most startling results from the election Sunday were those in the war-torn republic of Chechnya, which is run by a strongman leader installed by Mr. Putin. United Russia won 99.4 percent of the vote in Chechnya, officials said, with a turnout of 99.5 percent.  Over all in Russia, the turnout was about 63 percent.  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A3 of the New York edition with the headline: Putin Basks in Election Win Despite Broad Criticism. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
President Vladimir V. Putin declared Monday that his party’s imposing victory in parliamentary elections was a “sign of trust” that had conferred new legitimacy on the government.