Russia Votes This Weekend — But Only Putin's Allies Are Allowed to Run

Polling stations opened Friday in Russia's Far East, starting a three-day election for the country's parliament, called the Duma. It's Russia's first parliamentary vote since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Putin's United Russia party is expected to keep its tight grip on the legislature, alongside a handful of small parties that also support him. Every party registered for this election backs the Kremlin and its ongoing war. In short, there is no real opposition on the ballot — the outcome was never in much doubt.

Why should you care about a vote whose result is already decided? Because Russia is a nuclear power and one of the world's biggest exporters of oil, gas and grain. What happens there moves energy prices, food prices and inflation far beyond its borders. This election is also the clearest public signal yet of how ordinary Russians feel about a war that has killed hundreds of thousands and is now in its fifth year. That signal shapes whether the fighting continues, pauses, or escalates.

Moscow has also organised voting in parts of occupied Ukraine — a move Ukraine and Western governments call illegal and meaningless. Inside Russia, independent candidates and critical voices have been barred or driven out, so voters who oppose the war have nobody to vote for. The Kremlin is using the three-day vote as a nationwide opinion poll: are people still behind the war as its costs — higher prices, sanctions and the draft — reach more households than ever this year?

The catch: because the result is fixed, don't read the winner as a verdict on Putin's popularity. The numbers that matter are turnout, spoiled ballots, and any scattered protests. Those are the only honest clues about public mood, and they'll shape what Putin does next — keep fighting, or eventually look for a way out. For the rest of the world, that decision has a price tag at the fuel pump and the grocery store.