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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party was on course to retain a large majority in the country’s parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results published by state media early Monday.
The vote, held to elect all seats in the lower house, the State Duma, was the first parliamentary election since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
With 93% of ballots processed by Monday morning, United Russia had secured 57.83% of the vote, up from 49.82% in the 2021 parliamentary election, according to Russia’s Central Election Commission.
The Communist Party received 13.81%, the LDPR 8.93% and New People 7.97%. A Just Russia received 4.96%, just below the 5% threshold required to enter the State Duma through the party-list vote.
United Russia candidates were also leading in 208 of the 225 single-member constituencies.
The ruling party is on course to retain its two-thirds majority in the 450-seat State Duma, allowing it to amend the constitution, according to projections by the state agency TASS.
Russia’s three-day election ended Sunday, with turnout approaching 57%, up from 51.72% in 2021, according to the commission.
More than 111 million voters were eligible to cast ballots at polling stations and through remote electronic voting.
Ten parties competed in the federal party-list vote, including the five parliamentary parties—United Russia, the Communist Party, the LDPR, A Just Russia and New People—as well as Rodina, the Communists of Russia, the Greens, the Pensioners’ Party and the Party of Direct Democracy.
No party opposed to the war was allowed to run on the federal ballot, after Russia’s Supreme Court removed the anti-war Yabloko party from the party-list vote weeks before the election.
Yabloko candidates remained on the ballot in some single-member constituencies.
Voting also took place in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, a move rejected by Kyiv and condemned by some Western governments. Ukraine has said any vote organized by Russia on Ukrainian sovereign territory is illegal and has no legal consequences.
Putin had urged Russians to take part, casting the vote as a show of support for Moscow’s troops and an “answer to those who want to weaken Russia.”
The Kremlin’s main political opponents have been driven into exile, while Putin’s main rival, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison in 2024.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, called on anti-war Russians to collectively cast their ballots at noon Sunday, a tactic that drew crowds in the 2024 presidential election.
In Berlin and London, AFP reporters saw dozens of opposition supporters gathered outside Russian Embassy buildings in protest at the vote.
Ukraine fired waves of drones at Moscow and the surrounding region on the final day of voting Sunday, killing two people and setting an oil refinery ablaze, officials said.
Russia vowed to “intensify” strikes on Kyiv in response, with the Defense Ministry accusing Ukraine of attempting to “disrupt the democratic will of Russian citizens.”
“In response to the Kyiv regime’s attacks on civilian targets within Russia, the Russian army will continue and intensify its high-accuracy strikes against military targets in Kyiv,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The Ukrainian attack was the largest on Moscow since the start of the war and involved around 1,600 drones, 450 of which were aimed directly at the capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Images showed a large hole in a multistory apartment building on the outskirts of the capital, while another showed black smoke rising from what appeared to be an oil refinery.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the attacks, saying “our long-range responses had a very significant impact in the Moscow region last night.”
Zelenskyy also spoke by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump, who in recent days has urged Kyiv to stop its attacks on Russian refineries. The two leaders are expected to meet in New York in the coming days.
At least two people were killed—a 44-year-old woman and an elderly man—in two separate locations, Moscow regional Gov. Andrey Vorobyov said.
A fire triggered by a drone crashing into a 21-story building also led to the evacuation of 400 people, Vorobyov added.
Ukraine has targeted Russian infrastructure with drones throughout the war, in retaliation for Russian bombardment of its own towns and cities.
As voting entered its final day, Russia’s electoral chief said there had been a wave of cyberattacks targeting election infrastructure.
Ella Pamfilova, chair of Russia’s Central Election Commission, did not say who was responsible.
She said the attacks appeared to have been carried out by “highly professional, well-coordinated groups using artificial intelligence tools.”
“Over the past period, more than 1,000 waves of DDoS attacks have been recorded against infrastructure in Russia that is specifically involved in the electoral process,” Pamfilova was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
DDoS, or distributed denial-of-service, attacks involve overwhelming a system with internet traffic so it cannot function normally.
Pamfilova warned Saturday that saboteurs had also severed communication lines in Russia’s Far East in an apparent attempt to disrupt voting.
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