MOSCOW- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ruling party is likely to get a far smaller majority in parliament at the December 4 election, the country's biggest independent pollster predicted on Friday.

Based on its last major opinion poll before the election, Levada-Center said Putin's United Russia party would win about 252-253 places in the 450-seat lower house of parliament, down from 315 it has now.

The pollster predicted the Communist Party would come second with about 94 seats, followed by the nationalist LDPR party winning 59 seats and the Just Russia party with 44 seats.