Russia starts wartime parliamentary vote as Kremlin tightens war narrative

Moscow,UPDATED: Sep 18, 2026 01:56 IST

Russia began three days of voting on Friday in its parliamentary election, with the outcome widely seen as certain but the political and economic backdrop far more difficult than in previous years. United Russia, the main Kremlin party, is expected to retain its dominance in the State Duma along with other parties aligned with President Vladimir Putin, even as authorities have tightened control over the first wartime election for the lower house since the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The vote comes as the war has become harder for Russians to ignore. Ukrainian drone attacks have damaged oil refineries and logistics facilities, public unease has grown and the election has, for the first time, been extended to residents of four Ukrainian regions annexed by Moscow after the invasion, a move Ukraine has called illegal. Analysts say the Kremlin sees the election as a way to rally support for the war and present its actions as publicly backed. In a message before the vote, Putin said, "Your choice and resolve will once again demonstrate that millions of people stand behind our fighters, that we are a united people, bound by shared values, historical memory, and love for the Motherland."

A summer of long-range Ukrainian drone strikes brought the war closer to daily life for many Russians and added to economic strain. After an initial boost from heavy military spending, the economy has slipped into stagnation, while the government has raised taxes and increased domestic borrowing to manage a growing budget deficit. Strikes on oil refineries triggered a fuel crisis that peaked in June, eased briefly and then returned in August. Attacks on warehouses used by online retailers Wildberries and Ozon also hit hundreds of thousands of individual sellers and sent further shockwaves through the economy.

The pressure affected public morale. The independent Levada Center put Putin's approval rating at 76 per cent in August, down from 87 per cent in September 2025, though it remained high. Discontent was also voiced by some members of the elite. Andrei Klepach, chief economist at the state VEB.RF bank, warned at a seminar, "We won't win the competition in this war of attrition. Our costs are mounting. I'm almost sure that we will come to face a social crisis." He was dismissed the day after his comments were published.

Putin has acknowledged the attacks caused serious damage but has said the economy can withstand it, while arguing that Ukraine had opened a "Pandora's box" and would face heavy retaliation. Russia has since intensified strikes on Kyiv and other cities with missiles and new jet-powered drones, taking advantage of Ukraine's shortage of defensive interceptors. Moscow has also stepped up attacks on Black Sea ports, disrupting Ukrainian exports of grain and other agricultural products. At the same time, fears have grown over a possible new mobilisation. A partial mobilisation of 300,000 reservists in 2022 led hundreds of thousands of Russians to leave the country. Since then, the Kremlin has relied on volunteers with relatively high pay and benefits, though military experts say the flow has weakened while losses remain heavy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly said the Kremlin may order a mobilisation after the election, a suggestion Putin dismissed as "nonsense".

At a September 5 Kremlin meeting with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and later in a call with President Donald Trump, Putin said Russia held the upper hand on the battlefield, signalling that he would stick to his maximalist demands in any peace deal. At home, even limited anti-war political space has been narrowed further. Although the Central Election Commission cleared 11 parties for the ballot in July, including Yabloko, the only party openly critical of the war, the Supreme Court later removed Yabloko from the ballot after an appeal by the nationalist Motherland party, which said Yabloko's position was akin to seeking the violation of Russia's territorial integrity. Tatyana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center said, "The risks that the campaign would turn into a struggle for and against peace - that is, a dispute about the war - were quite high, and this clearly was not part of the plan."

The tightening continued beyond party lists. Maxim Kruglov, Yabloko's deputy chairman and a former member of Moscow's city council, was sentenced in June to seven years in prison for spreading false information about the military. Last month, a court in the Pskov region sentenced Yabloko member Lev Shlosberg to more than 11 years for speaking out against the war. Half of the Duma's 450 seats are decided through party lists and the rest through single-constituency races, but Yabloko was removed from the party-list vote and many of its members were barred from standing in constituency contests for the Duma and regional legislatures. Liberal politician Boris Nadezhdin, who had tried to run against Putin in the 2024 presidential election, left Russia last month, saying he feared imprisonment after being labelled a "foreign agent" and barred from contesting office.

Despite public fatigue over the war and worries about the economy, United Russia, which already holds more than two-thirds of the Duma's seats, is expected to remain firmly in control. Some Russian reports say the Kremlin has lowered its target slightly for the party, but not enough to threaten its dominance. Analyst Mark Galeotti, who heads Mayak Intelligence, said, "United Russia may be allowed to slip a little to bring its actual sort of declared results more in line with probably its real results," while the Kremlin will make sure it "is still absolutely dominant within the Duma". He added that the elections are "legitimating rituals to give the impression that mass consensus is behind the Kremlin". The Communist Party, the Liberal-Democratic Party and A Just Russia, all part of the so-called systemic opposition and all supportive of the war, are also expected to keep their parliamentary presence. Galeotti also said Ukraine's attacks could deepen calls for a stronger response against Kyiv, "as long as they don't have to be involved in it".

Chris Weafer, chief executive of Macro-Advisory Ltd., said the attacks had hurt public morale but had not created any immediate threat to the Kremlin's political control. "There has been a rally around the flag' anyway since the start of conflict and the opinion polls consistently show the very high level of support," he said. He added that while the result is largely predetermined, "the public narrative and particularly the turnout" matter most to the Kremlin as it seeks to present the election as a broad endorsement of its course. That leaves the vote less as a contest over power than as an effort to reinforce support for the war and underline United Russia's continued hold over parliament.

With PTI Inputs

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