United Russia wins 355 Duma seats with 57.8% vote in wartime election

Parliamentary election results

Russia's ruling party, United Russia, secured 57.83% of the vote and 355 seats in the 450-member State Duma, based on official counts released by Central Election Commission head Ella Pamfilova. The seat total marks an increase from the 324 seats and 49.8% share the party won in the 2021 election. Initial exit polls had placed United Russia lower, with state pollster VCIOM projecting 49.4% and the Insomar institute estimating 50.8%. The Communist Party finished second with 13.81% and 40 seats, while the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia captured 8.98% and 25 seats. The New People party took 7.96% and 20 seats. A Just Russia took 4.96% after 94.95% of ballots were counted, falling just below the 5% legal threshold and reducing the Duma from five parties to four.

Opposition exclusion and electoral process

Turnout reached 59% across the three days of voting from 18 to 20 September, rising above the 51.7% recorded in 2021. Every party permitted on the ballot endorsed the military offensive launched against Ukraine in February 2022. The Supreme Court banned the liberal anti-war party Yabloko on 10 August over alleged campaign finance and intellectual property breaches, following opinion polls showing its backing near 6%. Two prominent Yabloko figures had previously received lengthy prison terms for anti-war statements. In response to the exclusion of anti-war candidates, exiled opposition groups organized protests and long queues outside embassies in European cities, while ecological candidate Yulia Kuznetsova reappeared to vote after disappearing on Thursday.

International reactions and occupied regions

Balloting was administered inside the Russian Federation, in Transnistria, and across occupied Ukrainian provinces, where multiple polling stations in Donetsk closed early because of drone threats. The European Council issued a formal statement describing the vote as evidence of continuous democratic erosion in an increasingly authoritarian setting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the proceedings as illegitimate, while Russian President Vladimir Putin described the ballot as a direct measure of public support for state policies. After early results indicated a governing majority, United Russia chairman Dmitry Medvedev addressed party members.

Citizens of our country maintain trust in the main political force.

Drone strikes and military crossfire

The final day of voting saw military actions across the border, with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin stating that air defenses intercepted 1,600 Ukrainian drones, including roughly 450 directed at the capital. Debris damaged residential buildings and the Gazprom Neft oil refinery in Moscow, causing four deaths, forcing the diversion of thirty commercial flights, and prompting fuel sales curbs at regional petrol stations. Ukrainian forces also deployed Flamingo ballistic missiles for the first time, while the clandestine group Atesh claimed rail sabotage. Concurrently, Russian strikes hit an electronics factory and data center in Kyiv, killing a mother and three children, while another strike hit a monastery in Kherson, killing an Orthodox priest.