Russians Vote in Parliamentary Election Seen as Test of Support for Putin’s War

Russians cast ballots in a tightly controlled election as Putin seeks to gauge public backing for the war in Ukraine.

September 18, 2026 One Min Read

POLICY WIRE — Moscow, Russia — Russians started voting on Friday in a three-day parliamentary election that is expected to reinforce President Vladimir Putin’s control over the country, now in its fifth year of conflict with Ukraine.

This is the first such vote since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties. Only parties aligned with Putin and his military campaign are allowed to participate, and Moscow has also organized voting in occupied territories within Ukraine.

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Voters are choosing from 450 seats in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, with little expectation of any surprises. Putin’s United Russia party is widely anticipated to win decisively, but the election serves as a symbolic measure of public sentiment toward the ongoing war. Despite Western sanctions, the Russian economy remains stable, and daily bombings of Ukrainian cities continue without interruption.

Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)

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