Putin Tried to Run Duma Elections as If They Weren’t Taking Place – and Largely Succeeded, Shaburov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 22 – Vladimir Putin was happy with the way the Duma was configured and acted before the elections and so set as his task in the just-completed vote to minimize any real debate about issues and to ensure that the new Duma would look and act like it predecessor,  Aleksey Shaburov says. In this, the Kremlin leader largely succeeded.

The editor of Yekaterinburg’s Politsovet portal notes that Moscow did what it could to ensure that no real debate would occur in the course of the run-up to the vote and then did what ever it had to do, including outright falsification of the results, to get a new Duma much like the old (politsovet.ru/88648-vybory-kotoryh-ne-bylo.html).

According to Shaburov, “the specific plan for the elections was announced in early 2026 by Vladimir Yakushev, secretary of United Russia’s general council. He suggested that his party had to receive 55 percent of the vote,” something that would suggest growing support for it without overturning its relations with other parties.

As a result, the commentator continues, “the Duma will remain exactly the same as it was dominated by United Russia while will retain its respectful attitude towards the systemic opposition. The remaining parliamentary parties will receive several committees and vice-speakers.” In short, no change.

Because that was Putin’s goal, there was no need to have an active campaign or mobilize the population. Rather the reverse. Candidates from all parties were less active because they knew they need not be or could not change things if they became more active and spent less for that reason and because there was less money to spend.

As a result, many people in Russia barely recognized that a campaign was going on, exactly the attitude that Putin and his regime hoped for and likely will maintain into the future, Shaburov says. There were two bumps on this road, the possibility that Yabloko could take part and the risk and Just Russia might not get enough votes to have deputies in the Duma.

The Kremlin addressed these by administrative measures, forcing Yabloko candidates off the ballot and adding via falsification votes to Just Russia’s total to ensure it would get in the Duma and there wouldn’t have to be any redistribution of role there or even the discussion of such a possibility.

For all these reasons, Shaburov continues, there was much less need for or even talk of administrative mobilization than had been the case with Duma elections before. And now Putin can look forward to at least three years of peace at least on this front given current plans for a presidential election in 2030 and another Duma vote in 2031.