Russians begin three days of voting in wartime parliamentary election

Voting began Friday in a three-day parliamentary election in Russia that President Vladimir Putin has cast as a barometer of public support for the war in Ukraine. It is the first parliamentary election since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The vote will determine the makeup of the 450-seat lower house, with half the seats filled by party lists and half by single-seat constituencies. Authorities spread the election across the weekend and allowed electronic balloting in a bid to boost turnout among 111 million eligible voters. Polls close Sunday, with initial results expected to begin trickling out at 6 pm GMT and near-complete results available Monday.

Russia's Supreme Court removed the liberal, anti-war Yabloko party from the ballot last month, leaving it with only a few dozen candidates running in individual constituencies. Some anti-war politicians have been imprisoned or fled the country ahead of the campaign.

A handful of smaller "systemic opposition" parties, from the Communists to the far-right Liberal Democrats, are expected to retain a nominal presence in the Duma, though they consistently vote in line with the Kremlin on key issues.

In a televised address to the nation ahead of the vote, Putin linked participation directly to the war effort. "Your choice and your will will once again demonstrate that millions of people stand behind our soldiers, that we are a united people bound together by shared values, historical memory and love for our homeland," he said.

The election is taking place against a backdrop of mounting strain on Russian society. Ukrainian long-range drone strikes over the summer hit oil refineries, factories and logistics hubs, including warehouses belonging to online retailers Wildberries and Ozon, triggering a widespread fuel crisis. The Russian economy is also grappling with high interest rates, a labor crunch and Western sanctions, and polling has shown growing anxiety among Russians about the war's trajectory.

For the first time, the election includes residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the invasion began, as well as Crimea, annexed in 2014. Authorities in Kyiv have denounced voting in Russian-held Ukrainian territory as illegal and warned that participating in organizing the ballot there could carry criminal liability.

The Kremlin has said national unity is essential given what it describes as escalating efforts by Ukrainian intelligence and other adversaries to stir unrest inside Russia. Putin secured another six-year term in the 2024 presidential election, in which genuine opposition candidates were barred from the ballot, extending his rule until at least 2030.