This weekend, Russians are heading to the ballot box to vote in the first parliamentary election since the war with Ukraine began in early 2022. Theoretically 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 retain its comfortable majority. One of the hopefuls is Damir Gurin, who is running for the Green Party in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, where the forests of Siberia meet the Pacific Ocean.
His policies include affordable housing, monitoring industrial emissions and promoting recycling over landfills. An advertisement promoting the elections on state-run TV depicting famed Russian warriors through history ends with the words: “Their voice is the voice of victory. Your vote is the strength of Russia!” “This extensive election campaign is taking place as we continue the special military operation,” Putin stated in a public address on Wednesday, using the official euphemism for the invasion of Ukraine.
Ilya Budraitskis, a Russian social scientist based in California, said the Kremlin is seeking a popular mandate for its handling of the Ukraine war. On Friday morning, Ukraine launched more than 350 drones towards Moscow as the election got under way. Kyiv’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure have caused fuel shortages, while the authorities have imposed internet blackouts in the name of national security.
There are “loud explosions, the ceiling shakes and plaster falls off the house, and sometimes she has to hide in the bathroom with the dog”. According to the independent pollster Levada, more than half of Russians support peace talks, yet nearly 70 percent say they also support the actions of the armed forces in Ukraine. Max, a young Muscovite, said he has used an online tool which advises dissenting Russians who to vote for.
This won’t lead to an end to the war, but at least I can sleep soundly,” he told Al Jazeera. Aleksey is considering voting for the Communist Party “even though I understand that in the current situation, no party can be against war”. Of all of Russia’s major parties, only the liberal Yabloko openly opposes the war and calls for an immediate ceasefire.
But in August, a judge excluded it from the election after a complaint from a small nationalist party, Rodina, over alleged copyright infringement, “extremism”, and overseas funding. And it would be extremely dangerous to allow such a public campaign, because it was obviously popular.” But for Sergey Kalenik, a Moscow-based media professional who supports Putin’s government, the exclusion of Yabloko means Russian democracy has “flourished.” “Previously, elections were a real life-or-death struggle, because any attempts by patriots to gain ground were blocked,” he told Al Jazeera. He described Yabloko cofounder Grigory Yavlinsky as “a fanatical Ukrainian nationalist [who] wants to make all Russians slaves of Ukrainians.” “What kind of democracy can there be when such a party exists in parliament?” he asked rhetorically.
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