Observers abducted, public-sector workers coerced and communications cut: how Russia's elections have begun

Mobile networks and internet access may be shut down in Russia during the three days of voting for the State Duma (lower chamber of the Russian parliament) and regional parliament elections on 18-21 September due to what authorities describe as "security measures". Meanwhile, systematic pressure on election observers, coercion of public-sector employees and widespread electoral fraud are being reported across the country.

Source: Russian independent media outlets Vazhnye Istorii (Important Stories) and Astra; human rights organisations; media outlets 7x7 and Verstka, and regional Telegram channels

Details: Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia's Central Election Commission, warned of possible restrictions on communications. She said network disruptions would not prevent the voting process from going ahead.

"There may be some, shall we say, unintentional disruptions to mobile communications and data transmission. For us, this is not a reason to cancel the vote," Pamfilova said.

Although the three-day voting period began on 18 September, numerous violations and cases of intimidation of independent observers and opposition representatives began well in advance.

In Altai Krai, local election commissions have reportedly been falsifying lists for home voting on a large scale, adding citizens without their consent. Local activists conducted telephone surveys of people at addresses on the lists, and residents confirmed that they had not submitted any applications and were not expecting election commission members to visit them.

In addition, voters in the region are being forced to register for remote e-voting. More than 250,000 Altai Krai residents have so far applied to vote online, accounting for almost 15% of the region's electorate.

The Russian authorities are forcing public-sector employees to report individually on votes cast for Vladimir Putin's United Russia party. Reports of this have emerged from Altai Krai and Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Belgorod and Samara oblasts.

Representatives of the anti-war Yabloko party have also faced pressure. In Kazan, candidate Sofia Fedorova and her team are facing attempts to force them out of their offices: immediately after a meeting with voters on 16 September, the electricity to the premises was cut off and the landlord demanded that they vacate the office immediately.

In Sverdlovsk Oblast, five Yabloko candidates were abruptly removed from the State Duma election race.

In Tambov Oblast, law enforcement officers have begun systematically pressuring election observers, demanding face-to-face meetings. Human rights advocate Vladimir Zhilkin said police officers were working from extensive, pre-prepared lists of independent observers and that their actions appeared to be coordinated across different districts of the oblast.

Other parties are also facing obstruction. In Voronezh Oblast, for instance, around 400 observers from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) were barred from polling stations on the grounds of alleged "errors in the paperwork".

The situation is particularly critical in Russian regions bordering Ukraine, where Russia's Central Election Commission authorised early voting to take place 12 days before the nationwide election day.

In Rostov Oblast, unidentified masked individuals abducted Boris Mikliukov, an observer representing Yabloko. Three unidentified people forced the activist into an unmarked car and drove him towards one of the police stations in Rostov-on-Don. Contact with him has since been lost.

In Belgorod Oblast, widespread ballot stuffing was recorded on the very first day of early voting during home voting, with election commission members casting votes on behalf of voters.

"They're voting for everyone en masse. My mother called me and happily told me that I didn't need to go anywhere because someone had already voted for me," a Belgorod resident said.

The previous day, investigative journalists published leaked internal documents concerning the State Automated System Vybory 2.0 (Elections 2.0), which is being used fully for the first time in Russian federal elections in 2026. According to the developer's technical documentation, the updated system contains tools that allow final vote-count protocols to be directly substituted, electoral rolls to be altered and unverified electronic voting results to be uploaded.

Background:

• On 17 September, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) called on the parliaments and governments of foreign states, international organisations and parliamentary assemblies to condemn the holding of sham elections to the Russian State Duma in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and not to recognise their results.
• Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that Russia's organisation and conduct of the sham vote in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine constitute a gross violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Ukrainian law and international law, including the UN Charter.

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