What happened in this Geopolitics story?

United Russia secured 355 of 450 Duma seats with record 59.3% turnout in Russia's first wartime parliamentary vote, while the only anti-war party, Yabloko, won a sliver of representation in a single regional assembly in Novgorod by one percentage point.

What is a key fact in this story? (1)

**United Russia** won 57.83% of the vote (up from 49.8% in 2021), claiming 355 of 450 Duma seats and maintaining a constitutional majority that lets it pass laws and amend the constitution without other parties' support

What is a key fact in this story? (2)

**Central Electoral Commission chair Ella Pamfilova** reported a record 59.3% turnout among Russia's 111 million voters and called the vote "clean" despite exiled opposition activists' allegations of widespread rigging

📎 SkimNews has covered United Russia 12+ times · see the file →

Pro-Putin party keeps grip on parliament, anti-war party gains tiny regional foothold — SkimNews

By The Hindu · Summarized & edited by Kapil Samant · 2026-09-21

Get the Geopolitics newsletter

Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.

United Russia won 57.83% of the vote (up from 49.8% in 2021), claiming 355 of 450 Duma seats and maintaining a constitutional majority that lets it pass laws and amend the constitution without other parties' support
Central Electoral Commission chair Ella Pamfilova reported a record 59.3% turnout among Russia's 111 million voters and called the vote "clean" despite exiled opposition activists' allegations of widespread rigging
Three other parties entered the Duma — Communists (13.81%), LDPR (8.98%), and New People (7.96%) — all of which have voted with United Russia on major issues in recent years, while Just Russia fell just under the 5% entry threshold
Yabloko, Russia's only registered anti-war party, won no national seats but cleared the 5% threshold by one percentage point in Novgorod, roughly 480 km northwest of Moscow, marking the sole independent anti-war foothold in any Russian legislature
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Putin ally, won re-election to a fifth term with an official tally near 100%
The three-day vote concluded despite a heavy Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow on the final day (September 20), with Putin having framed the election as a test of support for the war launched in February 2022

Why it matters: United Russia now holds a constitutional supermajority of 355 of 450 seats, giving Putin the ability to pass laws and amend the constitution unilaterally. The three other parties that won Duma seats all vote with United Russia on major issues, leaving Yabloko's single Novgorod seat as the only independent anti-war voice in any Russian legislature — a marginal but symbolically significant crack in the controlled political façade.