The Russia parliamentary election features the Kremlin-aligned United Russia alongside nine other parties that support President Vladimir Putin’s policies. The only party that openly opposed the war in Ukraine has been barred from the ballot.
The lack of genuine opposition virtually guarantees continued Kremlin control of politics amid mounting economic strains and more frequent Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries and online retailers. Those strikes have brought the war’s impact closer to ordinary Russians more than four and a half years after it began.
The Kremlin is using the vote, the first since the full-scale invasion in 2022, to project public backing for the war and to lend a veneer of legitimacy to its actions. Authorities have moved to minimize political risk by suppressing even small signs of dissent.
Here’s what to know about the election and its main parties:
How the Russia parliamentary election works
Voting runs from Friday through Sunday for the State Duma, Russia’s lower house, alongside local races. Voters in 11 regions will choose governors, and 39 regions will elect regional legislatures.
The three-day schedule is meant to lift turnout among about 111 million eligible voters and includes territories in Ukraine that Russia has illegally annexed. Electronic voting is permitted.
The Duma has 450 seats. Half are filled from party lists, and the other half are decided in single-mandate races. United Russia is expected to maintain overwhelming control, while other so-called systemic opposition parties that reliably back the government on key issues are also likely to keep their seats.
The liberal Yabloko Party, the only registered party that opposes the war, was initially on the ballot. In August, the Supreme Court ordered it removed, citing reasons that included its anti-war position being akin to challenging Russia’s territorial integrity. Yabloko can now only field candidates in single-mandate contests.
United Russia
United Russia, symbolized by a bear under the tricolor, won more than two-thirds of Duma seats in 2021 and is again favored to dominate. Despite public fatigue, recession and stagnant living standards, state media and tight election controls make its victory all but certain.
The party list is led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, 76, who has served as top diplomat for 22 years, and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, 68. To showcase new faces, its third-ranked figure is war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny, who was severely wounded by a Ukrainian drone.
United Russia members pledge full support for the war and for Putin’s stated objectives in what the Kremlin calls the “special military operation.” At the same time, Sobyanin, seen as a pragmatist, has rejected calls from hardliners for broad mobilization and a full war economy, saying, “To destroy a normal economy is to destroy the country altogether.”
Communist Party
The Communist Party has been a major parliamentary force since the 1990s, led for more than 30 years by Gennady Zyuganov, 82. Throughout Putin’s more than 25 years in power, the party has criticized some policies without directly challenging him and firmly backs the war.
“We strictly adhere to President Putin’s directives,” Zyuganov said last month while overseeing a shipment of military supplies. The party is boosting its social media presence as it tries to broaden its base beyond older voters.
Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR)
Despite its name, the LDPR is an ultranationalist party with a long-standing Duma presence. Founded by the late Vladimir Zhirinovsky, known for calls to reclaim former Soviet lands and for nuclear threats against Russia’s foes, it competes with the Communists for voters nostalgic for the USSR. After Zhirinovsky’s death in 2022, leadership passed to Leonid Slutsky, a former professor who survived sexual harassment allegations.
The LDPR strongly supports the war and highlights military veterans among its ranks. Its candidates include Viktor Bout, a former arms trader dubbed the “Merchant of Death,” who was swapped in December 2022 for WNBA star Brittney Griner after her arrest in Moscow over cannabis oil.
A Just Russia
A Just Russia has been active for about two decades as a social-democratic party that competes with the Communists for older and middle-aged voters nostalgic for the Soviet period. It supports the war in Ukraine. Its leader, Sergei Mironov, 73, once posed with a sledgehammer gifted by the late Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin before Prigozhin’s failed 2023 mutiny, a symbol linked to Wagner’s brutality against alleged traitors.
New People
Founded ahead of the 2021 parliamentary vote, the New People Party sought to represent younger voters and technocrats as a liberal-leaning voice. It cleared just over 5 percent to form a small faction. After the election, it aligned with Putin’s policies, disappointing supporters. Led by Alexei Nechayev, a cosmetics executive, the party is widely viewed as a Kremlin project designed to appeal to liberal-leaning audiences and create an appearance of competition.
Other parties on the ballot
Other contenders include Communists of Russia, a smaller rival to the main Communist Party, the Party of Pensioners, the Green Party, the Party of Direct Democracy, and the Motherland Party.
Motherland, a hard-line nationalist party that has repeatedly shifted structure and leadership since the early 2000s, is led by Alexei Zhuravlev, who holds its only Duma seat and is known for fierce anti-West rhetoric on state television. Zhuravlev petitioned the Supreme Court to remove Yabloko from the ballot.
Throughout Putin’s more than 25 years in power, the party has criticized some policies without directly challenging him and firmly backs the war, echoing concerns seen when Congress examines foreign influence operations in the U.S..
The Duma has 450 seats. Half are filled from party lists, and the other half are decided in single-mandate races, similar in structure to how the State Duma has operated in previous election cycles.
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