Russia opened voting for all 450 seats in the State Duma on Friday, beginning a three-day parliamentary election that is expected to preserve the commanding position of President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. Polling started first in Kamchatka and Chukotka, at the eastern edge of Russia’s 11 time zones, and was scheduled to conclude Sunday evening.
The election is the first contest for the lower house of parliament since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. It is taking place without a competitive anti-war party on the ballot. United Russia faces the Communist Party, the nationalist LDPR, A Just Russia and New People, all of which support most Kremlin policies and the military campaign. Yabloko, which had called for an end to the fighting, was excluded from the party-list race shortly before voting. One of its prominent figures, Lev Shlosberg, has been imprisoned after criticizing the war.
The Kremlin has also organized voting in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Moscow has prohibited public criticism of its military campaign, while many prominent Putin opponents have been jailed, driven abroad or otherwise removed from organized politics. Alexei Navalny, who previously mobilized election protests, died in an Arctic prison in 2024. These conditions leave the result in little doubt, but turnout and voting patterns may still give officials an indication of public sentiment as the war enters its fifth year.
Putin urged citizens to participate, presenting the vote as a demonstration of unity behind Russian troops. Exiled opposition groups took a different approach: rather than calling for a boycott, they encouraged opponents of the Kremlin to vote against United Russia and published tactical recommendations. Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, urged anti-war voters to appear at polling stations at noon Sunday. Yabloko rejected that strategy and argued that participation would legitimize a field composed of parties that supported the war.
The campaign unfolded as the effects of the conflict became increasingly visible inside Russia. Ukrainian strikes have reached industrial and energy sites far from the border, including in the Urals and Siberia, causing damage and civilian deaths. Western sanctions have also sharply reduced Russia’s political and economic ties with Europe and the United States.
Another issue hanging over the vote is whether the government could order a new military mobilization afterward. Putin called up 300,000 reservists in 2022, prompting many military-age men to leave the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has alleged that Moscow is preparing another mobilization in the autumn, a claim Putin denies. No evidence supplied for this article establishes that such an order has been made. The election therefore offers the Kremlin a controlled political test, but not a conventional contest over the direction of the country.
