Russians have begun voting in the first parliamentary elections since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party is assured a victory as there exists no real opposition in the country.

Russians on Friday began voting in the first parliamentary elections since the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

From Friday to Sunday, Russians will elect members of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma. Voters in 11 regions will choose governors and 39 regions will elect members of regional legislatures. Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and Chukotka regions on the Pacific coast were the first to begin voting.

These are the first parliamentary elections since President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago. Elections are also being held in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia has illegally annexed during the ongoing war.

Putin’s United Russia party is assured of victory as there is no genuine opposition in the country. The only party opposed to the war in Ukraine, Yabloko, was barred from contesting the elections, and the last remaining politician opposed to the war, Boris Nadezhdin, was forced into exile last month.

During Putin’s 26-year rule, political opponents and dissidents have been banned, jailed, or driven into exile. Some have also died under suspicious circumstances. The most prominent opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, died in prison in 2024. European governments later held the Kremlin responsible for his death.

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Putin has been in power in Russia since 2000, and his United Russia party currently holds two-thirds of the seats in parliament. All other parties support the war in Ukraine and serve as Putin’s proxies.

Russia holds elections in shadow of war in Ukraine

Russia’s war in Ukraine, and its impact on Russians, has overshadowed the elections.

There are fears that the elections could be a precursor to a fresh round of mobilisation for the frontlines. Such mobilisation drives have been highly unpopular and have previously triggered a mass exodus of military-age men from the country.

Russian elites have increasingly warned that the war has become unaffordable and cannot continue indefinitely. Their warnings have coincided with sporadic protests among citizens and influencers that would have otherwise been unimaginable.

These warnings and protests have intensified amid slowing economic growth, a ballooning fiscal deficit, and a severe toll on energy infrastructure and key businesses caused by continuing long-range Ukrainian strikes.

Earlier this year, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov issued a rare public warning that the ‘rainy day fund’ the regime has been drawing on since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine is not inexhaustible. Putin has already used 60 per cent of the fund over the past four years.

Last month, state-run bank VEB.RF Chief Economist Andrei Klepach warned that Russia would lose the “war of attrition” with Ukraine and the West, and said predictions of Ukraine’s imminent collapse were false.

“We will not win this competition in this war of attrition. We have the illusion that everything over there will collapse. It has not collapsed, and it will not collapse. Our costs are mounting,” said Klepach.