Ruling pro-Putin party set to win Russia’s tightly controlled wartime parliamentary election

Key Points:

• The United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin, is leading the Russian parliamentary elections with 57.5% of the vote according to initial data, securing Putin's continued dominance in domestic politics.
• Voter turnout was 56.66% nationwide, with Moscow experiencing record-high participation, seen as a measure of public support for the war in Ukraine amid ongoing conflict and Kyiv’s large drone attacks on Moscow.
• Meaningful political opposition is largely suppressed, with Russia’s only registered anti-war party, Yabloko, barred from the federal election and its members facing imprisonment and restrictions.
• Electronic voting was widely used and promoted, especially in Moscow, despite concerns about transparency and reports of system malfunctions and cyberattacks targeting election infrastructure.
• The Kremlin is expected to use the election results to claim broad public support for Putin and the military campaign in Ukraine, while observers focus on turnout as an indicator of public sentiment.