United Russia Locks In Record 355-Seat Supermajority as Ukraine Hits Moscow With Biggest Drone Strike of the War

Russia's Central Election Commission says the pro-Putin United Russia party has won a record 355 of 450 seats in the State Duma, the country's first parliamentary election since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Commission chair Ella Pamfilova put United Russia's share of the party-list vote at 57.83%, up from 49.8% in 2021, with more than 95% of ballots counted as of Monday, September 21. Final certified results are due by September 25, according to CNN and Kurdistan24.

That total beats United Russia's previous record of 343 seats from 2016 and its 324 seats from the 2021 election. Turnout hit 59.3%, which Pamfilova called a record for a Russian parliamentary vote, according to The Hindu.

Three other parties cleared the threshold to enter parliament: the Communists at 13.81%, the ultra-nationalist LDPR at 8.98%, and New People at 7.96%. Just Russia fell just under the 5% cutoff but may still make it in, Pamfilova said. All three have consistently voted with United Russia on major issues, meaning there is effectively no opposition bloc in the incoming Duma.

No real alternative on the ballot

Yabloko, Russia's only registered party opposed to the war, was barred by the country's Supreme Court from the national party-list ballot last month. Some individual Yabloko candidates ran in single-district races, but two of the party's deputy leaders have been imprisoned over anti-war statements and social media posts, and Yabloko said one of its election observers lost consciousness while being detained at a St. Petersburg polling station, per CNN and KESQ. No Yabloko candidate won a Duma seat. The party did clear a 5% threshold by one point in Novgorod's regional parliament, according to The Hindu, drawing just over 12,000 votes there.

According to OVD-Info, the independent human rights monitor, more than 2,000 people are currently jailed in Russia for political reasons.

Newsweek reported that election observers and analysts flagged ballot stuffing, malfunctioning voting machines, and turnout figures some believe were inflated. Pamfilova rejected that characterization, calling the vote "clean" despite what she described as outside "psychological pressure" on the country. Those are two directly competing claims from named parties, and neither can be independently verified from these sources.

The drone strike backdrop

Voting closed Sunday, September 20, the same day Ukraine launched what Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called the largest drone attack on the capital since the war began, per Kurdistan24. Russian officials said more than 1,900 drones were fired at Russia over the voting period, killing at least two to three people (accounts vary slightly by outlet) and damaging the Moscow Oil Refinery. Russia's Defense Ministry vowed to intensify strikes on Kyiv in response, accusing Ukraine of trying to disrupt the election.

The Guardian reports 49 Duma deputies elected this cycle are veterans of what Russia calls its "special military operation," a figure United Russia general secretary Vladimir Yakushev initially put closer to 86 before revising it downward. Putin has previously described war veterans as a "new elite" destined for prestigious careers, and the Kremlin is expected to point to their election as proof of that promise, according to The Straits Times.

In Chechnya, Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov was re-elected to a fifth term as regional leader with a near-100% official tally.

What Putin gets from this, and what critics say it hides

Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said the result shows "the highest level of consolidation within Russian society around the head of state." The Straits Times notes Putin has also used the vote to contrast Russia's adherence to its electoral calendar with Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not held an election since his term technically expired in May 2024 under wartime martial law that bars elections outright. That is a real, verifiable distinction Putin has repeatedly raised, even as Western governments dismiss his own vote as illegitimate given the ban on Yabloko and the inclusion of illegally annexed Ukrainian territory in the balloting. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called it "another major setback for Russian democracy," saying on X that "the veneer of democracy is all that remains."

Sergei Guriev, dean of London Business School and a Kremlin critic, told Newsweek that Putin will use the result to argue Russians can absorb the war's economic costs, including a growing budget deficit and record military spending. Guriev and Elina Ribakova of the Peterson Institute for International Economics both raised the possibility of a new mobilization drive this autumn to replenish losses Kyiv and Western estimates put at up to 1,000 troops a day. The Kremlin has denied any imminent draft.

Zelenskyy said Sunday he and President Trump have agreed to meet in New York this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, calling it a moment with "diplomatic momentum." No date or agenda has been finalized in these accounts. Whether that meeting produces anything concrete, and whether Putin follows this election with the mobilization campaign Kyiv fears, are the two open questions hanging over the next phase of the war.