Russia Holds First Parliamentary Election Amid Ukraine War as Antiwar Party Is Excluded

Russians head to the polls this weekend for the first parliamentary election since the conflict with Ukraine began in early 2022. Up for grabs are 450 seats in Russia’s parliament, the Duma, though the governing United Russia party, led by President Vladimir Putin, is expected to maintain its comfortable majority.

Among the candidates is Damir Gurin, running for the Green Party in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District. His platform includes affordable housing, monitoring industrial emissions, and promoting recycling. "My goal is to provide this harsh land and its people with worthy ecological and institutional representation," Gurin told Al Jazeera.

However, the war heavily overshadows other issues. President Putin emphasized the ongoing military campaign in a public address, stating that the election will show public backing for Russian fighters. Key candidates for United Russia include the hawkish former president Dmitry Medvedev and Vladislav Golovin, a veteran of the siege of Mariupol.

Ilya Budraitskis, a Russian social scientist based in California, noted that the Kremlin is seeking a popular mandate to reinforce its legitimacy during wartime. Meanwhile, the conflict is increasingly impacting the home front, with drone attacks on Moscow, fuel shortages, and internet blackouts causing disruptions and anxiety among citizens.

Public opinion remains mixed. Independent pollster Levada indicates that while over half of Russians support peace talks, nearly 70 percent also back the actions of the armed forces in Ukraine. Exiled opposition figures such as Ilya Yashin and Yulia Navalnaya have urged citizens to vote against United Russia, though voters like Aleksey acknowledge that "no party can be against war" in the current environment.

Of all major political groups, only the liberal Yabloko openly opposed the war. However, in August, a court excluded the party from the election following a complaint from the Rodina nationalist party. Budraitskis noted that allowing Yabloko to campaign on immediate peace negotiations would have posed a significant challenge for the authorities. Despite the party-list ban, some individual Yabloko members, such as Polina Lermant in Moscow, are still permitted to run in single-mandate constituencies.