Overview
- Voting opened on Friday, Sept. 18, in a three‑day process to choose all 450 State Duma deputies under a mixed system of party lists and single‑member districts.
- The first day was hit by dozens to hundreds of drone strikes that forced temporary closures and evacuations at some polling stations and led officials to report hundreds of drones shot down.
- Electoral authorities said roughly 20 percent of voters had cast ballots early and that more than half of early participation came through electronic voting, a method used by President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials.
- The registered anti‑war party Yabloko was removed from the national list by the Russian Supreme Court and some of its leaders face long prison terms, a crackdown that independent critics and exiled opposition say undermines the vote’s competitiveness.
- Analysts expect United Russia to retain a parliamentary majority despite lower independent poll support, and observers will be watching e‑voting, ballots from annexed Ukrainian regions, and post‑vote procedures for signs of transparency problems that could affect international recognition and domestic trust.