Russia Begins Three‑Day Duma Vote Under Tight Kremlin Controls

Overview

• Voting began on Friday, September 18, and will run for three days as the Kremlin seeks a clear mandate in the first parliamentary election since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
• The Supreme Court removed the anti‑war party Yabloko from the national list and roughly 40 opposition‑linked candidates were disqualified for reasons such as paperwork problems and social‑media posts labeled extremist.
• Polls and analysts predict United Russia will comfortably exceed the 300 seats needed for a supermajority, a result the Kremlin has promoted with high‑profile endorsements and pressure on public and private employees to vote.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces intercepted hundreds of drones, reporting 629 UAVs destroyed around the start of the vote as ballot stations in annexed regions operated under armed guard.
• The vote illustrates Russia’s ‘managed democracy’ tactics—use of court rulings, candidate vetting, extended voting windows, and administrative pressure—to shape outcomes and to try to legitimize voting in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.