Overview
- Central Election Commission head Ella Pamfilova said Saturday that Moscow’s electoral system faced powerful, near-continuous cyberattacks overnight but that officials kept the situation under control so voting could continue.
- Voting is taking place both in person and online in Moscow and about thirty other regions, and election officials expect the two-day ballot to run through Sunday and produce first results soon after polls close.
- Only parties broadly supportive of President Vladimir Putin were allowed to run, the anti-war party Yabloko was excluded, and the outcome is widely forecast to favor the ruling United Russia party.
- The elections cover all 450 seats of the State Duma and are being held in Russia’s regions as well as in territories of eastern Ukraine that Russia occupies and claims, a factor that complicates international views of the vote’s legitimacy.
- Voters spoken to by reporters cited economic strain from sanctions and the war as reasons for their choices, and officials’ account of attacks on online voting highlights a growing public and diplomatic concern about digital security and trust in Russian elections.