Russia opens three-day Duma elections with heavy security and veteran candidates

Three-day wartime ballot

Voting opened across Russia on 18 September for a three-day legislative election to renew all 450 seats in the State Duma and elect governors in 11 regions. Polling stations operate from 08:00 to 20:00 local time through Sunday, 20 September, covering 111 million eligible voters, including residents in occupied Ukrainian territories. State pollster VTsIOM projected United Russia to secure near 50% of the vote, allowing the party to retain its two-thirds constitutional majority. Authorities encouraged turnout with incentives including digital prize vouchers worth between 10 and 500 euros. The Kremlin pushed remote electronic voting heavily, with over 1.8 million Muscovites participating online in the first seven hours and digital turnout exceeding 50% among registered electronic voters. President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin each cast their ballots online.

War framing and veteran candidacies

The parliamentary election is the first held since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ten of the eleven registered parties openly support the military campaign, turning the contest into an endorsement of government policy. United Russia, which held 324 seats following the 2021 election, fielded about 400 candidates from a nationwide total of more than 4,400 contenders. Approximately 200 candidates across United Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party are military veterans who served in Ukraine. The ruling party also placed high-profile loyalists on its lists, including state television war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny, who was injured by a Ukrainian drone on the front line. Ahead of the vote, Vladimir Putin urged citizens to cast ballots to back the armed forces.

Your vote will demonstrate that millions of people support our soldiers; that we are a united people.

Drone alerts and security operations

Voting began under heavy security measures as police and armed personnel with submachine guns guarded electoral facilities. Russian defence officials reported intercepting more than 600 Ukrainian drones overnight across the European part of the country before stations opened. Moscow municipal authorities reported downing 32 drones heading toward the capital, a city of 13 million residents. In the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, several polling stations temporarily suspended operations following regional drone alerts. Central Election Commission chair Ella Pamfilova denied that electoral IT infrastructure suffered breaches, stating that technicians repelled multiple cyber threats during early voting. Ahead of the vote, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service accused European Union countries of preparing operations to destabilise the election.

Opposition bans and legal suppression

Independent election monitor Golos documented an environment devoid of political competition following its designation as an undesirable organisation and the imprisonment of its director, Grigory Melkonyants. Anti-war factions faced complete exclusion, with the Yabloko party and independent politician Boris Nadezhdin barred from running. According to research by the Levada Center, six out of ten Russians favour entering peace negotiations with Ukraine, yet no anti-war platform was permitted on the ballot. Stanislav Andreichuk of Golos noted that genuine elections require broader structural freedoms.

These principles include not only a fair count of votes, but, above all, respect for fundamental rights and freedoms: freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of assembly and freedom of movement, as well as the principle of equal rights for candidates and parties.

Data from human rights organisation OVD-Info indicates that 2,188 political prisoners remain detained in Russian prisons. The group also recorded 5,044 individuals facing criminal prosecution for their expression, alongside 22,871 citizens listed as extremists and 1,265 designated as foreign agents.