Russian voters handed pre-marked ballot papers favouring Putin's party as mass fraud claims hit wartime election
From the Newshound archive · first published 19 September 2026.
A social media post flagging the second day of Russia's wartime vote, with European leaders warning Vladimir Putin may order a fresh mobilisation of 300,000 troops once polling closes.Russia's three-day parliamentary vote, closing Sunday, leaves only pro-invasion parties in contention after Yabloko's removal, as Vladimir Putin declared casting a ballot would help secure "Russia's victory" in Ukraine.
Ballot papers pre-marked with a cross for Putin's United Russia party were distributed to voters in Syktyvkar, while video showed a polling-station worker in St Petersburg feeding roughly 100 voting slips into a ballot box. Employees at state enterprises and defence plants were allegedly told to photograph their marked ballots and submit the images to managers. Russia's first parliamentary election during wartime runs over three days and faces virtually no opposition after anti-war parties were banned from standing.
In Luhansk, voters who arrived at polling stations were informed their votes had already been recorded — even though they had never been notified of any early voting.
Liberal party Yabloko, the only political force to have campaigned for a ceasefire in Ukraine, was excluded from the national ballot by Russia's Supreme Court.
Exiled dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky warns the election lays bare the Kremlin's 'greatest fear' — not electoral defeat, but the prospect of any genuine political alternative taking shape.
