Three-day voting in State Duma elections begins in Russia — RNZ World
In Russia, an aggressor state, three-day voting has begun in elections to the State Duma. Polling stations opened first in the Far East, including in Kamchatka and Chukotka. Voters are electing 450 deputies to the lower house of parliament, and voting will continue until 18:00 GMT on Sunday.
As RNZ World reports, these are the first parliamentary elections in Russia since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Only parties supporting Vladimir Putin, Kremlin policy and the war against Ukraine were allowed to participate. Moscow also organized voting in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
Parties in the elections
Alongside the United Russia party, the Communist Party, LDPR, A Just Russia and New People are taking part in the elections. According to AFP, all of them support most of Putin’s political decisions and the war against Ukraine.
The Yabloko party, which called for an end to hostilities, was barred from the elections shortly before the vote. One of its leading representatives, Lev Shlosberg, was imprisoned for criticizing the war. A 20-year-old Muscovite named Apostol told AFP that he sees no point in voting for anyone other than United Russia, as it will “win anyway.”
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Russian politics expert Tatiana Stanovaya, who lives in France, told AFP that it is personally, emotionally and politically important for Putin to demonstrate significant support from Russians and compare Russia’s political situation with that in European countries.
Fears of a new mobilization
On the eve of the vote, Putin urged citizens to come to polling stations to show the military that millions of people stand behind them. Criticism of the war against Ukraine is banned in Russia, and protest actions are not permitted.
The Russian opposition in exile called on Kremlin opponents not to boycott the elections, but to vote against United Russia, publishing recommendations on whom to support in each region. Alexei Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, also called on opponents of the war to vote at noon on Sunday. At the same time, Yabloko called for people not to participate in the voting.
Some Russians fear a new mobilization after the elections, similar to the 2022 campaign when Putin called up 300,000 reservists. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused the Kremlin of planning a new mobilization this autumn, but Putin denied it.
