Kremlin party leads Putin’s wartime Duma with a two-thirds majority

Election in Russia

Kremlin party leads Putin’s wartime Duma with a two-thirds majority

For the first time, dozens of war participants are sitting in Russia’s new parliament. Kremlin leader Putin also sees the new State Duma as the basis for his course of military force against Ukraine.

Those for Moscow’s war of aggression against them Ukraine leading Kremlin party United Russia massively expanded its previous two-thirds majority in the State Duma in the parliamentary elections. According to data from the Central Election Commission in Moscow The party, which has been in power for more than 20 years, is expected to have 355 mandates – around 20 more than before. It is the highest result in their history. The Duma has a total of 450 seats.

By morning, more than 95 percent of the ballot papers, including electronic votes, had been counted. Returning officer Ella Pamfilova explained the Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin supported party officially became the winner with 57.83 percent of the vote. In the previous election in 2021 – before the war – she received 49.8 percent of the vote. There are also direct mandates.

Putin is likely to see the election, in which only parties loyal to his line were admitted, as an incentive to continue the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin opponents, however, described the vote as a farce. The independent Russian political scientist Tatjana Stanovaya said that there were clearly “falsifications” and that the party was not able to achieve such a result. Nevertheless, it reflects the balance of power overall.

United Russia enjoys support in the country. “There was no failure,” she said. Even after the anti-war Jabloko party was excluded, the war opponents among those eligible to vote could have switched to other parties such as the Greens.

Because of the exclusion of a real opposition and a lack of freedom of the press and freedom of expression, the elections – like those in previous years – were criticized as neither democratic nor fair.

The Communist Party came in second with 13.81 percent of the vote; the ultranationalist party LDPR got 8.98 percent; The Nowyje Ljudi (in German: New People) party, which is popular among liberal city dwellers, achieved 7.94 percent.

According to preliminary results, the Fair Russia party reached the five percent threshold again in the afternoon after being below it during the day. It was already one of the five parties in the Duma. The party now landed in fifth place, after reaching 7.46 percent and 27 members in 2021. According to Pamfilova, Fair Russia could hope for four seats in the Duma.

All ten parties on the ballot are considered to be close to the Kremlin – and all support the war against Ukraine that has been ongoing since 2022. More than four and a half years after the invasion of the neighboring country, more than 40 war veterans are entering parliament for the ruling party. In a move unusual for Moscow, United Russia pressured state media to correct previous official party figures on 86 veterans in the Duma.