Erdoğan congratulates Putin after Russian parliamentary elections


President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to congratulate him on his party's huge gain in Sunday's parliamentary elections.

According to Kremlin press office, the two leaders also discussed Russian-Turkish economic ties as well as recent developments in Syria.

The biggest party supporting Putin scored an overwhelming victory in national parliament elections, winning three-quarters of the seats, the Central Elections Commission reported Monday.

With 93 percent of the ballots from Sunday's vote counted, the United Russia party was on track to get 343 of the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, CEC head Ella Pamfilova said. She said she expected no significant change in the results when the final count is announced Friday.