Putin’s United Russia Wins Record 355 Seats In Russia Election Amid Ukraine Strikes, Cyber Attacks

Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party has won a record 355 seats in Russia’s 450-member State Duma, strengthening the Kremlin-backed party’s control of parliament after a wartime election held amid tight restrictions on political opposition.

With more than 95 per cent of votes counted, United Russia had secured 57.83 per cent of the party-list vote, up from 49.8 per cent in the 2021 election. The party also won 208 of the 225 directly contested constituencies, taking its total to 355 seats, according to Central Election Commission Chair Ella Pamfilova.

The result surpasses United Russia’s previous record of 343 seats in 2016 and gives the party a constitutional majority in the Duma. The Communist Party was set to hold 40 seats, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) 25 and New People 20, while A Just Russia was hovering around the 5 per cent threshold.

The election, held from September 18 to 20, was the first parliamentary vote since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It was also the first Duma election to include voting in Crimea and four Ukrainian regions Russia claims to have annexed since the war began.

Ukraine also launched drone strikes on Moscow and other Russian regions during the election period, with Russian authorities saying the attacks were aimed at disrupting the vote.

The election took place after years of restrictions on political dissent. The liberal Yabloko party was barred from the national party-list contest, while many opposition figures were imprisoned, forced into exile or prevented from standing. Yabloko nevertheless secured a small regional foothold in Novgorod.

Russia also reported a major cyber threat during the three-day election. Pamfilova said authorities had thwarted more than 100 million potential cyber threats targeting electoral infrastructure, including large-scale DDoS attacks and attempts to exploit vulnerabilities. Russian officials said the attacks were blocked and no successful breach was recorded.

Pamfilova said attacks targeting Russia’s remote electronic voting system mainly originated from abroad, with some using spoofed Russian IP addresses.

The European Union meanwhile criticised the exclusion of opposition forces and Russia’s decision not to allow OSCE observers to monitor the election. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the vote represented another setback for Russian democracy and said people involved in organising elections in occupied Ukrainian territories could face sanctions.

Separately, Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Putin ally, was re-elected for a fifth term as head of Chechnya with 99.85 per cent of the vote, according to Russia’s Central Election Commission.

With 355 seats, United Russia will enter the new Duma with its largest parliamentary majority on record as Russia continues its war in Ukraine.