United Russia secured another compliant State Duma through an orchestrated wartime vote, but buying five years of legislative obedience cannot shield the Kremlin from the economic costs of an unyielding conflict.
By Tom Beckwith ·
As Ukrainian strikes struck Moscow during parliamentary voting, damaged oil infrastructure proved that Kremlin rhetoric cannot hide the structural costs of a grinding war coming home to the capital.
By Tom Beckwith ·
Russia holds parliamentary elections in illegally annexed Ukrainian regions using armed coercion, treating democracy as a logistical exercise in imperial bookkeeping.
By Tom Beckwith ·
When Vladimir Putin calls an election a "barometer of support," he isn't asking a question; he is issuing a decree.
By Aoife Gallagher ·
The three-day vote beginning September 18, 2026, for the State Duma is not an election in any sense that a student of institutional stability would recognize.
By Klaus Berger ·
There is a particular kind of cruelty in the word "barometer." Vladimir Putin has framed the current State Duma elections as a barometer of support for his war in Ukraine, but a…
By Elena Rossi ·