(MOSCOW) – The upcoming 2026 Russian parliamentary elections, the first to be held during wartime, have already set a record for their undemocratic nature, according to an analysis by the opposition channel Navalny LIVE.
The report states that the Kremlin is in a state of panic over the vote, fearing even a random show of protest could threaten the stability of the ruling United Russia party. To ensure a favourable outcome, authorities have launched a widespread crackdown on any potential opposition, from individual candidates to entire parties.
A key example of this strategy is the treatment of Boris Nadezhdin. Initially permitted to run in the 2024 presidential election to create a semblance of democracy, Nadezhdin unexpectedly garnered significant popular support as the only anti-war candidate. The Central Election Commission (CEC) subsequently barred him from the ballot, citing invalid signatures. Since then, Nadezhdin’s party, the Civic Initiative, has been liquidated, he has been declared bankrupt, and he has been labelled a foreign agent, forcing him to leave Russia.
The Yabloko party has faced a similar fate. Founded in 1993, the liberal party had rarely surpassed the electoral threshold. However, after it became the only party to openly call for an end to the war, its popularity surged. Other political leaders, including Alexei Zhuravlyov of the Rodina party, were instructed to attack Yabloko. Zhuravlyov, whose party’s assets are reported to be in the hundreds of millions of roubles (hundreds of thousands of USD/GBP), filed a lawsuit to remove Yabloko from the ballot. A Moscow court subsequently disqualified the party on absurd grounds, including alleged copyright infringement for a song lyric and the use of an AI-generated image. The party was also removed from regional elections in St Petersburg, the Leningrad, Pskov, Sverdlovsk, and Kaliningrad oblasts, and the Republic of Karelia.
According to the report, the Kremlin has now turned its attention to the Communist Party (KPRF), which has historically been the second-largest political force. While the party’s leadership supports the war, popular regional figures like Nikolai Bondarenko from Saratov have become threats. Bondarenko, known for his activism against pension reforms, was recently detained and fined 1,000 roubles (approximately $12/£9) for a post on his Telegram channel featuring a photo of Alexei Navalny. This move is seen as a pretext to bar him from the upcoming elections.
The report also details broader repressive tactics, including using laws against “extremist symbols” to disqualify candidates for old social media posts. Yabloko members have been removed from elections across the country for posts that include Facebook or Instagram logos. In one case, a candidate was disqualified for not writing “student” as their occupation. Prominent party members have received harsh sentences, with Yabloko’s Maxim Kruglov sentenced to seven years and Lev Shlosberg to 11 years and one month in prison on charges related to “fakes” about the army. The report warns that Yabloko could be liquidated entirely if it fails to participate in future elections.
The analysis also notes that United Russia’s own approval ratings are plummeting. Its anti-rating stands at 30%, while only 17% of voters are prepared to vote for it. In response, the Kremlin is increasingly linking the party to Vladimir Putin personally, despite his own “indicted war criminal” status under an ICC warrant. The report concludes by calling on citizens to use the “Smart Voting” strategy on election day, from 18th to 20th September, to vote for any party other than United Russia and to support the candidate with the best chance of defeating the ruling party. “This is the only remaining way to say no to United Russia,” the report states.
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