Putin Casts Russia's Duma Vote as War Support Test — SkimNews
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- Russia's State Duma election entered its third and final day on Sunday (Sept 20, 2026), with United Russia on track to extend its dominance in the first parliamentary vote since the February 2022 full-scale invasion — a contest Putin has publicly framed as a referendum on the war.
- Most anti-war candidates were barred from the ballot; Yabloko party candidates said they feared for their freedom after courts handed long jail terms to two senior party figures before the vote for comments about the conflict deemed illegal, with discrediting the army or spreading "fake news" punishable by lengthy prison sentences.
- Putin on Friday (Sept 18) accused Ukraine of trying to interfere in the election, citing a strike that killed election official Elena Astanina at her home in Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia; Russian electoral officials also reported Moscow's online voting system suffered a cyberattack on Saturday.
- Kyiv, which has suspended elections under martial law, dismissed the entire Russian vote as a "pseudo election."
- The Berlin-based NEST think-tank said the Communist party and the New People party could draw votes from war-fatigued Russians frustrated by the conflict's economic toll — though both have consistently voted in line with United Russia on major issues.
Why it matters: By barring anti-war candidates and jailing dissenters before the vote, the Kremlin has pre-engineered a near-unanimous result that doubles as political cover for continuing the war — converting an ostensible test of public sentiment into a choreographed affirmation rather than a genuine referendum on the conflict.
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