RismadarVoice Reporters
September 21, 2026
Russia’s ruling United Russia party has secured a commanding victory in the country’s parliamentary election, winning more than three-quarters of the seats in the State Duma, according to near-complete official results.
With more than 95 per cent of ballots counted, Russia’s Central Election Commission said United Russia had secured 57.83 per cent of the vote and was set to take 355 of the 450 seats in the lower house of parliament.
The result gives the party, which supports President Vladimir Putin, a constitutional majority in the State Duma.
The three-day election, which ended on Sunday, was Russia’s first parliamentary vote since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Voting was also conducted in Ukrainian territories occupied and claimed by Russia, a move rejected by Ukraine and several Western governments.
Other parties returning to the State Duma include the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party and New People.
The liberal Yabloko party, which has opposed the war in Ukraine, failed to secure representation at the national level after being removed from the party-list ballot by Russia’s Supreme Court. Some of its candidates were, however, permitted to contest individual constituency races.
Yabloko and the Communist Party said some of their election observers were denied access to polling stations during the vote.
Russia did not invite observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe to monitor the election. The OSCE said the decision was inconsistent with commitments undertaken by participating states and prevented it from providing an independent assessment of the electoral process.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also criticised the election, accusing the Kremlin of suppressing dissent, excluding the only registered party opposed to the war in Ukraine and preventing international election observers from monitoring the vote.
Separately, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning Russia’s decision to conduct State Duma voting in occupied Ukrainian territories.
The five governments described the voting in Crimea and occupied parts of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia as a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and said they would not accept it as altering the status of those territories.
The criticisms were rejected by Moscow, which has previously accused Western governments and institutions of applying double standards in their assessments of Russia.
United Russia’s victory leaves the party with a strengthened majority in the State Duma as Russia’s war with Ukraine continues.
