United Russia keeps Duma majority after tightly controlled wartime election

United Russia secured another commanding majority in Russia's parliamentary election after most opposition was excluded. The result is set to bolster the Kremlin's wartime narrative while deepening fears of further repression.

In Short

• Preliminary counts showed 355 of 450 Duma seats for United Russia
• Voting spanned three days and included occupied Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow
• Yabloko was removed from party ballots after criticising the war publicly

Russia's ruling United Russia party has retained its majority in parliament after a three-day election that excluded most opposition candidates, election officials said on Monday, in a result that helps President Vladimir Putin maintain his tight grip on power. Preliminary results showed United Russia winning 355 of the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, which would be a record high for the party if confirmed.

With results from more than 95 per cent of polling stations counted, United Russia had just under 58 per cent of the vote for the 225 seats decided by party vote, Central Election Commission chair Ella Pamfilova said. For the other 225 seats, decided in single-constituency contests, United Russia candidates were leading in 208 races. Several other parties that usually back Kremlin initiatives also won seats, while a handful went to independent candidates. The vote was the first parliamentary election since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the first to include residents of four Ukrainian regions seized and illegally annexed by Moscow later that year. Voting was also held in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and Kyiv denounced the voting in those regions as illegal.

The Kremlin tightened its crackdown on opposition before the election, barring Russia's only liberal anti-war party from the ballot and allowing it to compete only in single-constituency races. The election was also held as the Kremlin sought to show public support for the war while avoiding political risks by stamping out dissent. At a polling station in the Russian-held part of Ukraine's Donetsk region, voters dropped their ballots into a box under the gaze of an armed Russian soldier. Tatyana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre said in an online commentary that the government was "able to carry out the campaign and the voting the way it wanted, with the most optimal output".

The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political group that publicly criticised the war, was removed from the ballot last month by Russia's Supreme Court and was left with only a few dozen candidates in single-constituency races. Some anti-war politicians were also jailed or forced to leave the country before the campaign. Yabloko and the Communist Party, which has criticised some aspects of government policy but avoided any criticism of Putin, said many of their observers were turned away from polling stations. Electronic voting was available in many regions and was encouraged by the authorities, though critics said it made it easier for the government to control the outcome. Pamfilova said turnout was just over 59 per cent, the highest for a parliamentary election in more than a decade, and that final results would be announced on Friday.

Russia did not invite observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the group of "double standards" over its criticism of the country, while OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pere Joan Pons said the decision breached Russia's commitments as a member state of the organisation.

The election took place against the backdrop of repeated Ukrainian drone attacks. On Sunday, Russia's Defence Ministry said it shot down 1,110 Ukrainian drones overnight. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said hundreds of drones targeted the capital in what he described as "the largest ever" attack on the city, adding that the Moscow Oil Refinery and another building were hit. Three people were killed in the wider Moscow region, Governor Andrei Vorobyov said, while the Health Ministry said 38 others were injured and received medical treatment. Over the summer, Ukraine's long-range drone strikes hit oil refineries, triggered a widespread fuel crisis, and set large warehouses of online retailers Wildberries and Ozon on fire.

Stanovaya said, "Putin, of course, will interpret United Russia's results as confirmation of the (public) support of the war, even though it is not the case: the overall demand for ending the war is growing." She added, "The main question is: what now? There are great concerns about mobilization, new repressions, harsher measures, and escalation," and said, "I partially agree that Putin may perceive the election results as a green light for anything for the victory, but I think the role of the elections here is greatly exaggerated." She added, "Everything depends much more on the military situation, the American factor (I don't believe new negotiations will work out), and the overall picture, where everyone is escalating." Overall, the preliminary results pointed to another commanding majority for United Russia after a tightly controlled election held amid the war in Ukraine and a wider crackdown on dissent.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends