Putin will address the Russian people today ahead of the State Duma elections
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is scheduled to address the citizens of the Russian Federation on September 16 at 6:00 p.m. Moscow time. According to his press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, the address will focus on the upcoming State Duma elections.
Voting is scheduled for September 18–20. Russians are set to elect 450 deputies: 225 from party lists and another 225 from single-member districts.
These will be the first parliamentary elections in Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian authorities also plan to hold an illegal vote in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories.
It is currently unknown exactly what the Russian dictator will say in his address. Putin last addressed the Russian people on the eve of the 2021 parliamentary elections—before the start of the full-scale war.
Peskov also stated that the Kremlin will announce later in what format Putin will vote this year. It is currently unknown whether he will personally visit a polling station or use remote electronic voting.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has not yet decided whether to attend the G20 summit and, accordingly, whether to meet with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
As a reminder, Zelenskyy effectively proposed to the Kremlin leader that they hold a face-to-face meeting specifically during the G20 summit in December 2026.
U.S. President Donald Trump has not yet decided whether to invite Russia to the G20 summit, which will take place on December 14–15, 2026, in Miami.
