For years, the Kremlin tried to destroy independent election monitoring, but never managed to. Why watch for fraud if the opposition has been removed anyway?

For years, the Kremlin tried to destroy independent election monitoring, but never managed to. Why watch for fraud if the opposition has been removed anyway?

In the summer of 2026, the only party representing the non-systemic opposition, Yabloko, which had been running an anti-war campaign, was removed from the State Duma elections. Yabloko’s single-mandate deputies also ran into problems, and the authorities managed to remove some of them.

There is no longer any question of political competition in the upcoming elections, especially since Moscow and dozens of other regions are using online voting, which the authorities have used in past years to falsify results.

Even so, independent observers still intend to monitor whether the elections are clean. Although the Kremlin has spent years taking measures to make it harder for them to get into polling stations, it is still possible to get there. Meduza asked one observer why anyone should monitor elections whose outcome is predetermined.

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For years, Russian authorities tried to destroy independent election monitoring, but never managed to. Why watch for fraud…

In the summer of 2026, the only party representing the non-systemic opposition, Yabloko, which had been running an anti-war campaign, was removed from the State Duma elections. Yabloko’s single-mandate deputies also ran into problems, and the authorities managed to…