As Moscow holds ‘elections’ in Russia and beyond, a few races could prove problematic for the Kremlin
September 8 is the first day of Russia’s regional and municipal elections in Russia and in annexed territories of Ukraine. Voting in many places will last three days, September 8–10, according to Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) head Ella Pamfilova. Elections began Friday in 54 regions, including Crimea, the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics,” and the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Residents in about 30 other regions will also go to the polls this weekend, ending with the country’s unified voting day on September 10. (There’s also early voting, which began on August 20.)
Russia’s CEC will hold more than 4,000 elections at various levels over the next three days. These elections are being held in 79 regions of Russia and six occupied regions of Ukraine. According to officials, 21 regions, including Moscow, will choose governors; 16 regions will select regional legislators; and 12 regional capitals will vote on municipal deputies. Three regions — Karachay-Cherkessia, Krasnoyarsk, and Lipetsk — will hold by-elections for the State Duma, and the city of Khabarovsk will elect a mayor. The Russian authorities have postponed two elections in areas in the Belgorod region that frequently come under attack from across the Ukrainian border.
Twenty-five regions will have an option for online voting, including Moscow, the Moscow region, the Chuvash Republic, the Altai region, the Vladimir region, the Voronezh region, the Tomsk region, and others. Altogether, as many as 22 million voters may take part in online elections. According to Commissioner Pamfilova, electronic voting systems were targeted by more than 5,000 cyberattacks in the hours after they went live this year.
While the results of many of this weekend’s elections are foregone conclusions, there are a few races whose outcomes are still anybody’s guess. Local parliamentary elections in Yakutia and the Nenets Autonomous District (NAO) are worth watching, as these are the only regions where the Communist Party beat the ruling United Russia party in 2021. Additionally, less than half of NAO’s voters supported amending the Russian Constitution in 2020 to extend Putin’s presidency. There’s also the Irkutsk region, where the Communist Party traditionally receives a high percentage of the vote. In the last Zabaykalsky legislative assembly election, United Russia won 28.3 percent of the vote, while the Communist Party and the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia won 24.6 percent each.
This weekend’s vote will also be the first time Russia’s CEC holds elections in the annexed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” and Ukraine’s annexed Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, each of which will elect members to its Russian-installed “parliaments.” The CEC reported on September 7 that 45 percent of voters cast their ballots early in the “DNR,” 26 percent voted early in the “LNR,” 28 percent voted early in the Zaporizhzhia region, and 53 percent voted early in the Kherson region. Russia is also holding elections for “city councils” in Donetsk, Luhansk, Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia region), and Henichesk (Kherson region). According to the head of the occupation administration in the Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, foreign observers will monitor the elections, including from “friendly countries” outside the former Soviet Union.
Occupation authorities in newly annexed regions decided to hold elections despite ongoing fighting, and they reported artillery attacks on the first day of voting. On the morning of September 8, CEC Deputy Commissioner Nikolai Bulayev reported that members of the “regional election commission” in the Kherson region moved to a different location due to the risk of a missile attack. CEC head Ella Pamfilova reported that the “local election commission” was moved twice the same day for security reasons. The agency also reported that Russian air defenses downed two drones attempting to attack a polling station in the region. A commission representative blamed the attack on Ukrainian troops.
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington will never recognize the results of elections conducted by Russia on annexed territories in Ukraine. He added that the U.S. may impose sanctions and visa restrictions against “any individuals who may support Russia’s sham elections in Ukraine, including by acting as so-called ‘international observers.’”
The election most likely to pose problems for the Kremlin this year is the gubernatorial race in Khakassia. State Duma deputy and United Russia member Sergey Sokol withdrew from the race one week before the start of voting, citing health problems. Meanwhile, Valentin Konovalov, the head of the region who won by picking up the protest vote in 2018, is running for reelection.
Elections in Moscow are being held from September 8–10. Residents will vote for a mayor and deputies in the 13 municipalities that make up New Moscow. Voting began online and at more than 2,000 polling sites at 8:00 a.m. on September 8 and will last until 8:00 p.m. on September 10. More than 2 million cash prizes ranging from 1,000 rubles ($10) to 5,000 rubles ($50) will be raffled to online voters. More than 500,000 people cast their votes in the first four hours of online voting, according to state media.
Incumbent Mayor Sergey Sobyanin faces off against State Duma Deputy Speaker Boris Chernyshov (LDPR), State Duma Deputy Speaker Vladislav Davankov (New People party), Moscow City Duma deputy Leonid Zyuganov (Communist Party), and Dmitry Gusev, the first deputy head of A Just Russia’s faction in the State Duma.
Jailed opposition politician Alexey Navalny has urged voters to cast ballots for “any candidate against United Russia.” In a post on his blog, Navalny wrote: “Go to the elections with the goal of doing the maximum amount of harm possible to the party in power and its candidates.”