As Russia’s State Duma elections continue, the pro-Kremlin United Russia party and its allies are expected to retain their majority. Anti-war voters and activists are seeking to highlight what they view as the narrowing of the electoral field through polling-station monitoring, protest votes and calls for coordinated participation.
Voters will elect 450 members. Of these, 225 will be chosen from party lists and 225 from single-member constituencies. United Russia, which holds 70 percent of the Duma seats, is expected to maintain its dominance, while the remaining seats are projected to go to parties that support the Kremlin’s war policy.
Pressure on the opposition in the election race
Experts describe the contest as one of Russia’s most restricted parliamentary elections, with most candidates and parties that genuinely oppose the current political line excluded from the race. The Kremlin has maintained this approach, which limits political challenges.
Vladimir Putin is presenting the election as a referendum on the war effort at a time when public support for United Russia is at one of its lowest levels since the full-scale war in Ukraine began. For the authorities, creating an image of strong public support is therefore important.
Pressure on anti-war candidates peaked in August, when Yabloko, described as the only party campaigning on a pro-peace platform, was barred from running on party lists. Some of the party’s candidates were allowed to contest single-member constituencies.
Protest and monitoring initiatives at the polls
An unnamed woman in St. Petersburg is preparing to serve as a polling-station observer on behalf of Yabloko. Fearing the risk of political retaliation, she said that going to the polls and monitoring the process was one of the few things she could do to change the country.
Pre-election initiatives aim to draw attention to the absence of genuine political choices and the need to make anti-war views visible. Compared with previous election periods, these activities are smaller and attract fewer participants, who regard symbolic results as sufficient.
In the northern Vologda region, feminist activists petitioned for Natalya Moskvitina, a United Russia candidate who heads an anti-abortion group, to be removed from the party list. The activists argued that Moskvitina’s political stance threatens women’s rights. After the petition failed, they urged voters to support any party other than United Russia.
The campaign aims to reduce United Russia’s vote share to a level at which Moskvitina would lose her place on the regional representative list. Daria Serenko, co-founder of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance group, said she did not believe the initiative would prevent the candidate from being elected, but that they did not want Moskvitina to advance easily and invisibly through the election.
Call for coordinated participation on September 20
The “Noon Against Putin” initiative is calling on voters to go to the polls simultaneously at 12:00 p.m. on September 20, the final day of voting, to demonstrate opposition to the war. The organizers aim to create long queues outside diplomatic missions in Russia and abroad, with the images reflecting opposition to the elections.
Katerina Kiltau, chair of the political council of the exiled Peaceful Russia party, said coordinated participation would show that Russians want an end to the war in Ukraine, not the war itself. Exiled opposition figures Yulia Navalnaya and Maksim Katz are also urging voters to support parties other than United Russia.
Different strategies for protest voting
Opposition circles are debating whether to cast protest votes or boycott the election. Yabloko Chairman Nikolay Rybakov criticized voting for establishment opposition parties that support the war in Ukraine and political repression in Russia, opposing in particular support for the Communist Party or the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.
Kiltau argued that in unfree elections, a protest vote means choosing between bad and very bad options. In her view, turning to alternative parties and candidates instead of the ruling party could make it harder to distort the true picture of the election results.
Exit polls planned abroad
The “Voting Abroad” initiative plans to use a different form of monitoring through volunteers. Coordinator Irina Vesikko said they would reach voters in around 40 international cities, conduct exit polls and seek to document possible election fraud.
Vesikko said the initiative would not direct voters toward any particular action. She said its sole aim was to record that voting had taken place and how the results could be verified.
Voters who will not participate
Some anti-war Russians doubt that activist initiatives will change the election result. Anastasia, who lives in St. Petersburg, said she would not vote because she believed the election would decide nothing and have no impact. Nevertheless, she said she stood in solidarity with those casting protest votes.
Ivan, who lives in Europe, said he viewed political participation as a waste of time because he was disappointed with both pro-Kremlin and anti-war circles. Saying that he could not influence the government with his vote in Russia, Ivan argued that his stance stemmed not from indifference but from a realistic assessment of the current conditions.
