Russia Stages Three-Day Parliamentary Election, Silencing Anti-War Voices and Ensuring Kremlin Control
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Russia’s September 18-20 election, which will fill all 450 State Duma seats and 11 regional governorships, is a tightly controlled process featuring only parties loyal to President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine, after the anti-war Yabloko party was undemocratically barred.
Voting began on Friday in a three-day spectacle that will determine the composition of the 450-member State Duma and the governors of 11 federal regions. In a blatant suppression of political pluralism, only parties that back President Vladimir Putin and the devastating war in Ukraine – United Russia, the Communist Party, A Just Russia, the nationalist LDPR, and New People – are allowed on the ballot. The only opposition party, Yabloko, which dared to publicly oppose the war, was excluded after initially being permitted to run, exposing the Kremlin’s intolerance for dissent.
An unnamed European diplomat described the vote as “pretty much a sham,” highlighting the farcical nature of these elections, which the Kremlin treats as a hollow ritual to manufacture legitimacy and force high turnout. Russian political scientist Nikolai Petrov of the NEST Centre compared the process to the Soviet era, noting, “As in the Soviet era, elections must demonstrate the loyalty of citizens,” underscoring the authoritarian grip on Russian society.
The election also includes deputies for regional legislatures in 39 subjects, with eight of the 11 regional heads elected directly and the remaining three chosen by regional parliaments, further entrenching Kremlin control. Polling stations have even been opened at border crossings with Poland and the Baltic states, and voting is taking place in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, a move condemned by Kyiv and Western governments as illegitimate and a violation of international norms.
Putin, desperate to shore up support for his brutal war, urged citizens to vote to show support for the troops, cynically claiming it would provide “an answer to those who want to weaken Russia.” Meanwhile, widespread fears of a new military mobilisation persist, despite repeated denials by the president. Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia-Eurasia Centre, whose organization is banned in Russia, noted that a new draft was unlikely, but the Kremlin’s reassurances ring hollow for many.
Opposition figures in exile have called for anti-Kremlin voters to cast ballots against United Russia, while Yabloko’s chairman Nikolay Rybakov argued that abstaining was preferable to legitimising a system he described as responsible for countless deaths in Russia and Ukraine. The election serves as yet another reminder of the Kremlin’s relentless assault on democracy and peace.