European Parliament rejects legitimacy of Russia's new State Duma and calls for sanctions

A vote rejecting the Duma's legitimacy

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday, 8 October, that refuses to recognise the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, as the legitimate legislative and representative body of the Russian Federation. The Duma was formed after elections held from 18 to 20 September 2026. The text passed with 482 votes in favour, 41 against and 39 abstentions. The resolution also condemns the holding of Russian elections in Crimea, in parts of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions that Russia occupies, in Transnistria in Moldova, and in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It further opposes Russia's return to international sporting and cultural events under pre-war conditions.

Fraud claims and repression

The resolution describes the elections as falsified and says they were held without genuine alternative candidates, a free press, credible observers or political freedoms. According to the text, electronic voting was introduced in 33 regions, voting was spread over several days, and people in occupied territories were forced to take part. These factors, the resolution says, produced a turnout of 59.58% and gave United Russia 349 of 450 seats, over 77%. La Vanguardia reports 355 seats for United Russia and also cites irregularities and the absence of international observers. Opponents of the regime, the MEPs say, have been jailed, killed or forced into exile. The resolution puts the central point this way:

The falsified Duma elections of 2026 were the first nationwide parliamentary elections held during the war.

Sanctions and isolation of the new Duma

The resolution asks EU member states to refuse any official contact with the newly formed Duma and its members, to oppose Russian participation in interparliamentary assemblies, and to consider void any Duma act that legislates on, annexes or ratifies the status of occupied Ukrainian territories. It calls for new sanctions against judges, prosecutors, officials of Rosfinmonitoring (Russia's federal financial monitoring service), members of the Central Electoral Commission and officials who organised the votes in occupied territories. The EU is set to impose sanctions on 77 people linked to the Duma elections on Monday, including three officials of the Central Electoral Commission. Kaja Kallas, described by La Vanguardia as head of European diplomacy, said the EU is working on sanctions against the organisers of the elections. La Vanguardia also reports that the Parliament counts 46 people who took part in the invasion of Ukraine, including one person accused of torture, who will now form part of the Russian state body.

Conditions for normalising relations

According to RFI's coverage of the text, normalisation of relations with Russia is possible only after a just and lasting peace for Ukraine. The resolution sets conditions: full respect for Ukraine's territorial integrity, complete withdrawal of Russian troops, release of prisoners of war, return of deported Ukrainian children, Russian reparations and compensation, and accountability for crimes against Ukraine. The text also calls for continued support for Russian democratic forces that oppose the invasion of Ukraine and hybrid attacks on European democracies. It further condemns repression of civil society, human rights defenders and independent media, and mentions figures from a report by UN special rapporteur on human rights in Russia Mariana Katzarov. The resolution's demands therefore extend from the Duma itself to the wider system of repression and the war.