United Russia wins 57.83% of the vote and retains its constitutional majority in the State Duma. For the first time since the full-scale war against Ukraine began, parliamentary elections were held amid limited political competition and without an OSCE election observation mission.

 

The United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin, has retained control of the State Duma following the parliamentary elections held on September 18–20. According to preliminary data from the Central Election Commission (CEC), after more than 95% of the ballots had been counted, the party received 57.83% of the vote in the federal electoral district and, according to the CEC, holds 355 of the 450 seats in the State Duma.

The result gives United Russia a constitutional majority and allows the Kremlin to maintain virtually unchanged control over the lower house of parliament. In the previous parliamentary elections in 2021, the party received 49.8% of the vote, representing a significant increase in its official result in the current election.

The current vote was the first parliamentary election in Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. During the campaign, the Kremlin presented the election as an indicator of public support for the Russian leadership’s policies and the ongoing war. According to CCBS, the political system remained under tight control throughout the campaign, while most openly anti-war candidates were prevented from participating in the elections.

The degree of political competition was one of the key issues surrounding the election. The main parliamentary parties allowed to participate did not pose a systemic challenge to the presidential authorities, while the participation of independent and anti-war politicians was significantly restricted. Restrictions also affected the Yabloko party and its representatives, who had criticized the war.

Additional questions about the transparency of the process arose after the Russian authorities decided not to invite OSCE/ODIHR observers. The organization stated that Moscow’s refusal to facilitate international observation was inconsistent with Russia’s commitments as an OSCE participating State and deprived the electoral process of an independent assessment. The OSCE also said that the Russian authorities had failed to provide substantive responses to its attempts to establish pre-election dialogue and prepare an observation mission.

On election day, Russian authorities also reported cyberattacks targeting remote electronic voting systems and communications networks. Moscow said the attacks had been repelled, although the Russian authorities’ claims of Ukrainian involvement were not accompanied by publicly released evidence.

Another international dispute was triggered by the holding of Russian elections in Ukrainian territories that Moscow has declared part of Russia. Ukraine and a number of Western countries do not recognize Russia’s jurisdiction over these territories. As a result, the State Duma election has implications not only for Russia’s domestic political system but also for the international legal and political dispute surrounding the occupied Ukrainian territories.

 

The election result gives the Kremlin an opportunity to portray the preservation of its parliamentary majority as evidence of continued public support for its political course. However, the official results primarily reflect voting conducted within Russia’s existing political system, where opportunities for opposition participation, independent campaigning and external observation were significantly restricted. The electoral result alone therefore cannot provide an unequivocal measure of public support for all aspects of the Russian leadership’s policies, including the war against Ukraine.

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21.09.2026 08:57