Kremlin Engineers Parliamentary Vote to Project War Support — SkimNews
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- Russia began voting Friday in its first parliamentary elections since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with the vote engineered by the Kremlin to project support for a war now in its fifth year.
- Since the 2021 State Duma election, the Kremlin has eliminated tolerance for dissent — hundreds of thousands have fled the country, including most vocal opposition leaders, and nearly all antigovernment media has shut down or moved abroad.
- United Russia is expected to retain its legislative supermajority, with four nominal opposition parties splitting the remaining seats, according to polls and analysts cited by the Times.
- In Moscow, campaign posters are scarce, no large outdoor rallies occurred, and candidates frequently skipped televised debates, leaving little visible outlet for public anxiety over the war's economic and political fallout.
- Moscow-based political analyst Ilya Grashchenkov, who advises Russian politicians and parties, called the voting critical for those in power despite the absence of visible campaigning.
Why it matters: The elections formalize a parliament that will rubber-stamp Kremlin decisions for the duration of a war reshaping Russian society: hundreds of thousands have already fled, independent media has been silenced, and United Russia's retained supermajority guarantees no legislative check on war policy or economic mobilization.
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