Russians head to the polls from Friday to Sunday to elect members of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, in the first parliamentary election to be held since the country launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The vote comes as Russians face a slowing economy as well as Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries and warehouses far from the front line.
United Russia, the governing party that backs President Vladimir Putin, is expected to keep its dominant position.
The authorities are presenting the election as a chance for voters to have their say. Critics argue that with no genuine opposition on the ballot, the result is largely settled in advance.
So why are the elections worth watching? Here is what you need to know:
How do Russia’s elections work?
Starting Friday and lasting through Sunday, Russians will elect members of the lower house, the State Duma.
They will also cast ballots in local elections.
Voters in 11 regions will elect their governors, and 39 regions will elect members of regional legislatures.
Voting is spread over three days to boost turnout among the 111 million eligible voters and includes areas Russia occupies in Ukraine. Electronic voting is allowed.
Half of the Duma’s 450 seats are filled by party lists and the other half are contested in single-ballot races.
What is United Russia?
Russia’s governing party, formed in 2001 from a merger of pro-Kremlin parties, has backed Putin and dominated the parliament ever since.
United Russia won more than two-thirds of the Duma’s seats in the 2021 election. It is again poised to dominate the body.
The party’s list is led by political heavyweights: Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s top diplomat for 22 years, and Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow’s powerful mayor.
In an apparent bid to add fresh faces to what is widely seen as a party of bureaucrats, its third-highest-ranking official is war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny, who was badly wounded by a Ukrainian drone.
Members of United Russia have pledged to back the war effort and Putin’s maximalist goals in what the Kremlin calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Who else is running in Russia’s elections?
Alongside United Russia, other “systemic opposition” parties that vote in sync with the government on key issues are also expected to remain.
The liberal Yabloko Party, the only registered political party that opposes the war, was initially on the ballot, but the Supreme Court ordered it removed in August.
It cited, among other reasons, that the antiwar stance was akin to seeking the violation of Russia’s territorial integrity. Yabloko now runs only single-ballot races.
The Communist Party has been a leading force in the Federal Assembly since the 1990s, led for more than three decades by 82-year-old Gennady Zyuganov, a former Soviet official.
Throughout Putin’s rule of more than a quarter-century, the Communists have criticised some aspects of government policy but carefully avoided any criticism of him. They steadfastly support the war in Ukraine.
Alexander Bratersky, a political analyst and independent journalist, told Al Jazeera that the race for second place is worth watching.
If the Communist Party nab second, it would “suggest voters are angry about economic hardship and falling living standards”.
The Liberal Democratic Party, an ultranationalist force that has been a significant presence in the legislature since the early 1990s, will also likely retain some influence in the Duma.
Like the Communists, it staunchly supports the war and boasts of having multiple veterans as members.
Other smaller parties round out the ballot.
The party known as A Just Russia has been on Russia’s political scene for 20 years. A social-democratic party, it competes with the Communists for older and middle-aged voters nostalgic for the Soviet past, and it supports the war in Ukraine.
The New People Party was founded shortly before the last parliamentary election in 2021, seeking to position itself as a liberal voice representing younger voters and technocrats. It won just more than 5 percent of the vote, allowing it to form a small faction.
Bratersky described the party as “a liberal-leaning party backed by some Kremlin people who are more technocratic and more pro-peace”.
He said it appeals to the “middle-class audience”, and after the Kremlin banned Yabloko, it has been viewed as its substitute.
“So, if they come third with a good number of votes, this is a sign that those who are antiwar used them as their legal avatar,” he said.
Other parties seeking seats include Communists of Russia, a small rival of the main Communist Party; the Party of Pensioners; the Green Party; the Party of Direct Democracy; and the Motherland Party.
Why do the elections matter to the Kremlin?
While these elections may seem routine, the fact that they are the first since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is what makes them important, Bratersky told Al Jazeera.
He said that Putin has linked the elections to support for the war: Endorsing United Russia at its party congress in August, Putin said the party’s duty was “to do everything for victory” in the war in Ukraine.
“This shows that the Kremlin is a bit worried since the elections are the only legal way to show disrespect for the Kremlin,” Bratersky said. “Even Putin’s core fans hate United Russia as a corrupt force.”
How have past elections gone?
Since Putin first came to power in 2000, United Russia has won every Duma election, usually by a wide margin.
The results have repeatedly been disputed.
In 2011, allegations of vote-rigging set off the largest street protests of Putin’s rule.
After the 2021 vote, independent monitors and statisticians said the party’s real support was far lower than the official count.
The authorities have rejected claims of widespread fraud. Opposition parties and critics of the war have increasingly been kept off the ballot.
