Russia's first wartime parliamentary election was due to conclude Sunday, with the absence of genuine opposition to President Vladimir Putin's policies making it all but certain that the Kremlin will retain its dominance.
The final day of voting came as Ukrainian forces launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight, including hundreds targeting Moscow.
The three-day election began Friday, with authorities encouraging online voting in an effort to boost turnout among the country's 111 million eligible voters.
For the first time, the election included residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the war began but does not fully control. Voting is also taking place in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
Authorities in Kyiv condemned the voting in the Russian-held areas as illegal and urged foreign governments not to recognize the results. The European Union on Friday described the move as a "blatant violation of international law."
Kremlin expected to retain control
The Kremlin wants the parliamentary election — the first since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — to demonstrate popular support for the war and lend legitimacy to its actions. It has sought to minimize political risks by suppressing dissent.
A massive state media campaign and tight control over the election, combined with the absence of genuine opposition, are expected to help the Kremlin maintain its grip on Russian politics amid rising economic costs and increasingly frequent Ukrainian drone attacks deep inside Russia.
Voters cast two separate ballots, with half of the State Duma's 450 seats filled through party-list voting. The remaining seats are contested in single-member constituencies, where voters choose individual candidates.
Preliminary results are expected within hours after voting ends in western Russia.
United Russia, the main Kremlin-backed party, is widely expected to retain its overwhelming control of the lower house, the State Duma. Several smaller parties forming the "systemic opposition," which generally vote in line with Putin's views on key issues, are also expected to retain their presence.
Opposition sidelined as observers report violations
The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political entity to openly criticize the war, was removed from the party-list ballot by Russia's Supreme Court last month and has only a few dozen candidates contesting single-member constituencies.
Several anti-war politicians were also imprisoned or forced to flee the country ahead of the campaign.
Yabloko and the Communist Party, which has criticized some aspects of government policy while avoiding direct criticism of Putin, said many of their election observers were denied access to polling stations.
Russia did not invite observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), while the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the body of applying "double standards" in its criticism of Russia.
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pere Joan Pons said the decision breached Russia's commitments as a member state of the organization.
Yabloko said one of its observers lost consciousness while being detained by police at a polling station in St. Petersburg on Saturday after election officials accused him of trying to "disrupt the elections" and called the police.
The parties reported several violations, including sealed ballot boxes being opened, polling station doors not being secured overnight and officials refusing to issue paper ballots. The allegations could not be independently verified.
At a polling station in the Russian-held part of the Donetsk region, voters cast their ballots while an armed Russian soldier stood nearby and watched.
Electronic voting problems reported in Moscow
Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia's Central Election Commission, said Sunday that Moscow's electronic voting system had been targeted by cyberattacks.
SotaVision, an independent Russian news outlet, reported Sunday that voters had complained of glitches in electronic registration systems at polling stations across Moscow.
The outlet said some voters were not issued paper ballots and were instead instructed to vote through electronic terminals.
Leonid Volkov, a close associate of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, suggested that the reported failure of the system used to issue paper ballots in Moscow may have been deliberate to push voters toward electronic voting.
"Demand a paper ballot!" he wrote on X on Sunday.
Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov, who had urged supporters to spoil their party-list ballots, cast his vote in St. Petersburg on Sunday. His ballot was covered in bright green writing saying "For freedom," "For peace" and "Yabloko."
Russian opposition abroad stages protests
Russia's exiled opposition, including Yulia Navalnaya, widow of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, called on anti-war Russians to cast their ballots at noon Sunday.
Thousands of Russians living in Armenia took part in the voting. Russian citizens lined up outside the Russian Embassy in Yerevan on Sunday to join the "Noon for a Peaceful Russia" anti-war demonstration. Some held posters criticizing the war and Putin.
In Germany, Russian voters cast their ballots at the Russian Embassy in Berlin, while Andrei Pivovarov, a Russian dissident and former head of the Open Russia group, addressed protesters gathered outside the embassy.
Ukraine launches more than 1,000 drones at Russia
The final day of the election unfolded against the backdrop of a major wave of Ukrainian drone attacks.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Sunday that its forces had shot down a total of 1,110 Ukrainian drones across Russia, as well as over Crimea and the Black Sea.
Two people were killed and 20 others wounded across the wider Moscow region, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said.
The election follows a summer of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes targeting oil refineries, triggering a widespread fuel crisis.
Warehouses belonging to online retailers Wildberries and Ozon were also attacked. The strikes have added to Russia's economic difficulties and brought the war closer to millions of people.