Russia opens three-day parliamentary election with Kremlin critics and anti-war candidates barred
Polling stations opened across Russia on Friday for a three-day parliamentary vote to decide the 450 seats of the State Duma, with nearly 113 million voters eligible.
Polling begins across eleven time zones
Polling stations opened in the Russian Far East on Friday, 18 September 2026, inaugurating a three-day legislative election. Approximately 113 million citizens are eligible to cast ballots to fill all 450 seats of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. Balloting concludes on Sunday at 18:00 GMT, with initial tallies expected immediately following the closure of voting stations. This contest represents the first parliamentary election held since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. To extend administrative reach, Russian authorities have also set up voting infrastructure in occupied and annexed territories across eastern Ukraine.
- Polls open across the Russian Far East to begin three days of voting
- Voting concludes across all polling stations at 18:00 GMT
- Election officials announce preliminary vote results
Repression of communist and anti-war figures
Ten registered political parties appear on the ballot, though all approved formations support President Vladimir Putin and the military campaign in Ukraine. The ballot features the ruling United Russia alongside the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), A Just Russia, and New People. While the KPRF holds 56 seats as the second-largest parliamentary force, authorities have restricted its non-aligned figures. Disciplinary actions against critical communists follow earlier precedents, including the 2021 removal of former Moscow party leader Valeri Rashkin after he led street protests over alleged vote fraud. Andrei Tsukanov, a member of the Left Front executive committee who was previously barred from municipal elections in 2022, detailed the current enforcement campaign.
We communists have been subjected to very serious persecution for about six months. Mass criminal and administrative cases have been opened against us in many regions, especially in the red provinces.
Anti-war factions face total administrative exclusion from the ballot. The liberal party Yabloko was barred from the contest shortly before the vote, and its senior figure Lev Shlosberg was imprisoned for condemning the war. Yabloko retained 103 of its 137 single-member district candidates up until 11 September 2026, after which several more nominees were disqualified or threatened with conscription to the front lines.
Electoral design and public sentiment
Under Russia's electoral framework, half of the 450 seats are allocated through proportional party lists, while the other 225 seats are contested in single-member constituencies. Recent boundary redistricting incorporated occupied Ukrainian regions into these individual districts, creating structural advantages for United Russia, which has controlled parliamentary proceedings since the early 2000s. José Ángel López, a professor of international law at Universidad Pontificia Comillas ICADE, described the political function of the ballot.
The elections serve as a poll, to take the pulse of Russian society, and to perpetuate Putin in power under a masquerade of supposed democracy, giving a certain legitimacy to the regime before the Russian people.
Despite the lack of anti-war alternatives on the ballot, polling reflects widespread public weariness with the conflict. A survey conducted by the Levada Center found that 59% of Russians support an immediate end to military operations and the opening of peace talks, though the Kremlin continues to reject any ceasefire proposals.
