Russia's ruling United Russia party was on track to easily win Sunday's parliamentary election after Ukraine launched a massive drone attack on Moscow. The strikes killed three people in the Moscow region and two more in Russian-held Kherson, and also damaged a Moscow oil refinery, while election officials reported cyberattacks on voting systems and most anti-war candidates remained barred from the ballot.
United Russia was on track to easily win the parliamentary vote that President Vladimir Putin has cast as a test of support for the war in Ukraine, with partial official results showing 57.5% of the vote. Other Kremlin-aligned parties — the Communists, the ultra-nationalist LDPR, the New People party and Just Russia — trailed by a large margin but were on course to win seats in the State Duma. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and a former president, said United Russia had performed with dignity and that Russians had entrusted it to govern further.
Drone strikes kill three near Moscow, two in Kherson
Kyiv launched hundreds of drones at Moscow and other regions in what the TASS state news agency called the biggest attack of its kind since the war began. The strikes killed three people in the Moscow region and two more in Russian-held Kherson, including an election official, according to regional officials and the election commission. A facility at Moscow's oil refinery, targeted before, was also damaged, with flames and columns of smoke rising from the site as voting got underway.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the attack had been repelled. According to Sobyanin: "The biggest attack by enemy drones has been repelled." Russia's Defence Ministry said Ukraine also fired Flamingo cruise missiles and that it had downed nearly 2,000 Ukrainian drones and eight cruise missiles in the past 24 hours, adding it would intensify strikes on Ukrainian military targets in response.
Cyberattacks hit voting systems as turnout nears 57%
Voting systems faced waves of cyberattacks, election authorities said, though they added the process had stayed mostly smooth. Russia's opposition in exile had urged war opponents to gather at polling stations at noon, a call that drew long lines in some locations, though its effect on the final result was unclear. Turnout had reached nearly 57% as of early evening Moscow time, according to Central Election Commission data.
Most anti-war candidates were barred from the ballot. Yabloko party candidates said they feared for their freedom after courts handed long jail terms to two senior party figures over comments about the conflict, since discrediting the army is punishable by lengthy prison sentences. Yabloko's leader, Nikolai Rybakov, spoiled his ballot, writing his party's name and a slogan calling for peace.
Think tank sees room for Kremlin surprises
Kyiv, which has suspended elections under martial law, dismissed the Russian vote as a pseudo election. Despite what experts see as the election's predictable outcome, the NEST think tank in Berlin, co-founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, said the vote could still produce awkward moments for the Kremlin at a time of economic strain. It said the Communist and New People parties could draw votes the authorities would prefer went to United Russia, as accumulated frustration over the war translates into support for the systemic opposition parties the Kremlin allows on the ballot.
Source: Investing.com
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