It is expected that half of the 450 deputies of the new State Duma will be elected from single-member electoral districts, which should allow people to vote for a specific candidate. The remaining 225 mandates will be distributed according to party lists. There are 10 parties listed, as the "Yabloko" party was previously barred from participating in the elections for formal reasons. However, candidates from "Yabloko" remain represented among the "single-member" candidates in several regions of the Russian Federation. ## ## Russia Held Elections to the State Duma in Occupied Territories of Ukraine The previous elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation were held in 2021, and this time voting was expanded to the occupied territories of Ukraine. Participants in the full-scale invasion of the neighboring country, as well as residents of the regions occupied by Russia, voted early, from the end of August until September 17, representatives of various Russian structures reported. Observers note that even if the legitimacy of such a process in these regions is disregarded, the Central Election Commission of Russia organized the voting in such a way that its results are virtually impossible to verify. Thus, the authorities did not publish data on the participants of the regional electoral commissions and the addresses of polling stations, there was no open video surveillance organized at them, and moreover, the use of portable ballot boxes was permitted. The Central Election Commission of Russia also allowed local electoral commissions to print ballots on-site if necessary and not to transfer them to higher authorities immediately after counting. At the same time, pro-government resources in Russia began to spread videos before the elections, suggesting that videos about ballot rigging and stuffing from polling stations could be generated by artificial intelligence. The head of the Central Election Commission of Russia, Ella Pamfilova, also stated that such technologies could allegedly "replace the picture" from the polling stations in real-time. ## ## Anti-War Candidates in Russia Faced Persecution None of the ten parties represented in the elections to the State Duma in 2026 condemned the ongoing war in Ukraine. Initially, the "Yabloko" party, which consistently criticized the war, was allowed to participate in the elections, but it was soon barred for formal reasons. "Yabloko" was removed from the party lists; however, individual party members are participating in the elections as candidates in single-member districts. Later, some of them also faced persecution and removal from the elections on various grounds, often due to old photos and posts, including mentions of Alexei Navalny. Shortly before the elections, opposition figures Yulia Navalnaya and Maxim Katz urged Russians to vote for the strongest candidates who are not members of the "United Russia" party. However, "Yabloko" criticized the idea and advised instead to spoil the ballots.
