As the results emerge in Russia's parliamentary elections, BBC Monitoring looks at the reactions of the key players.

"It is very important that the head of government, Vladimir Putin, who is a man of word and deed, supported the bloc." - Sergey Shoygu, leader of Unity (Russian news agency ITAR-TASS)

"However intense their brainwashing was, they still are loyal to the ideals of justice, friendship of the peoples and respect for the working man ..." - Gennadiy Zyuganov, Communist Party of Russian Federation (Russia TV)

"I believe that a broad union of patriotic forces will emerge in the Duma." - Gennadiy Zyuganov, Communist Party of Russian Federation (Russia TV)

"The seven or 8% that we can hope for now with confidence is simply a colossal victory..." - Sergey Kiriyenko, Union of Right Forces (Russian NTV)

"[We] will have 15% nationwide ... Yabloko and Fatherland-All Russia can sit at home." - Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, leader of Zhirinovskiy's Bloc (Russian NTV)

"The most important day is 5 June when I become president. That will be a surprise for all of you. We will have a party on 5th June." - Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, leader of Zhirinovskiy's Bloc (Russian NTV)

"Today our country's entire political structure is based on the events in the North Caucasus ... and any serious defeat there will simply overturn the entire situation." - Grigoriy Yavlinskiy, leader of Yabloko (Russian NTV)

"We don't regret anything ... and we will go ahead and we will defend the values of democracy, freedom, morality in politics, a sensible economic policy ..." - Grigoriy Yavlinskiy, leader of Yabloko (Russian NTV)

"On the whole, we are in a very good mood... We are optimists" - Yevgeny Primakov, leader of Fatherland-All Russia (Russian NTV)

"In parliament, we will stretch out our hand to all the healthy forces." - Yevgeny Primakov, leader of Fatherland-All Russia (Russian NTV)

"A fierce and unprecedentedly dirty and mendacious struggle." - Yuri Luzhkov, Fatherland-All Russia (Russian NTV)

"The authorities, the government and the Kremlin administration had far more opportunities to exert pressure on the subsidised regions than on those that fend for themselves." - Yuri Luzhkov, Fatherland-All Russia (Russian NTV)

"Everything came down again to a battle of the elites - if you can call them elites." - Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev (Russian NTV)

"We have saved face. This is our main achievement in this campaign." - Vladimir Ryzhkov, Our Home is Russia (Russian Public TV)

"For some strange reason, we elect people guided by who has the fewest flaws, not the largest number of merits, and by how many square centimetres of mud there are on this or that candidate." - Aleksandr Lebed, governor of Krasnoyarsk (Russian news agency Interfax)

BBC Monitoring http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages