Polls have closed across Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories in the country’s first wartime parliamentary elections, with the ruling United Russia party on course to win the tightly controlled vote amid heavy drone attacks and widespread opposition sideline efforts.
Russia wrapped up its three-day parliamentary contest on Sunday, September 20, 2026, with election officials reporting a final turnout of 56.66 percent. The vote marks the first legislative election since the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. President Vladimir Putin’s administration structured the contest to showcase popular support for the ongoing war, utilizing a tightly managed political environment that excluded genuine opposition.
Security Disruptions and Ukrainian Drone Strikes
The final day of voting unfolded against a backdrop of intense military conflict. Ukrainian forces launched more than 1,000 drones overnight, representing what state news agency TASS described as the biggest attack of its kind since the war began. The strikes killed at least three people in the Moscow region and two more in the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, including an election official.
Domestically, Russian authorities reported disruptions to electronic voting systems and communication lines. Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, stated that Moscow’s electronic voting system faced targeted cyberattacks. Pamfilova blamed one of the systemic parties participating in the election, though she did not specify which one.
Independent monitors from the independent Russian news outlet SotaVision reported electronic registry glitches across Moscow polling stations, where voters were directed away from paper ballots toward electronic terminals. Leonid Volkov, an associate of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, suggested that the paper ballot shortages may have been engineered to force voters onto the electronic system.
Disputed Balloting in Annexed Territories and Domestic Sideline Efforts
Balloting included residents of four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Moscow after the war began, alongside Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. Authorities in Kyiv denounced voting in these occupied zones as illegal and urged international governments to withhold recognition. The European Union formally condemned the measure as a blatant violation of international law
on Friday.
Domestic political space remained severely restricted. The liberal Yabloko party—the sole registered entity to publicly criticize the war—was removed from the ballot by Russia’s Supreme Court last month, leaving it with only a few dozen candidates in single-seat races. Independent observers and opposition parties, including the Communist Party, reported that numerous monitors were barred from polling stations, while other critics faced imprisonment or exile.
Amid these exclusions, international election monitors were absent. Russia declined to invite observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, prompting the Russian Foreign Ministry to accuse the body of double standards
. Pere Joan Pons, president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, stated that the exclusion breached Russia’s commitments as an organization member state.
Duma Control and Preliminary Outcomes
Voters cast two separate ballots to fill the 450 seats of the State Duma, dividing their choices between party lists and individual single-seat constituencies. United Russia is widely projected to retain its overwhelming majority in the lower house, supported by smaller factions of the systemic opposition
that vote in alignment with Kremlin policy on major legislative questions.
Initial official results and final turnout breakdowns are scheduled for release on Monday morning. The consolidation of legislative control positions the ruling party to maintain its trajectory through ongoing economic pressures and intensifying cross-border security challenges.