Putin's Party Tightens Grip on Duma After Elections Amid Drone Attacks

President Vladimir Putin’s party achieved a decisive majority, as expected, in Sunday’s parliamentary elections amid Ukrainian drone attacks and cyber operations, according to early results published by official media on Monday morning.

No opposition party critical of the war in Ukraine was allowed to participate in these elections—the first since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022—and the vote also included Ukrainian territories occupied and annexed by Russia.

According to results reported by Russian news agencies after counting nearly 71% of votes, United Russia received 57.5% of the vote.

Following closely were the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic National Party, with 14% and 8.7% respectively, according to AFP.

This result grants the ruling party a two-thirds supermajority in the State Duma, enabling constitutional amendments, according to TASS news agency forecasts.

Official preliminary results and voter turnout figures are expected to be announced early Monday morning.

Russian officials said Ukraine launched coordinated waves of drones targeting Moscow and its surrounding region during the final day of voting, resulting in two deaths and a fire at an oil refinery.

The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of attempting to "undermine the democratic expression of the will of Russian citizens." It affirmed that Moscow would continue "intensifying precision strikes against military targets in Kyiv."

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin described the attack as "unprecedented" and "clearly planned to disrupt the elections." He added, "The enemy failed," noting that Russian air defenses shot down over 1,600 drones, including "450 headed toward Moscow."

In contrast, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the strikes, stating, "Our long-range operations had a significant impact on the Moscow region last night," confirming the use of around ten different types of weapons.

Zelenskyy also announced he had agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump to hold a meeting in New York following a phone call between them on Sunday.

Andrey Vorobyov, governor of Moscow Oblast, said at least two people—one a 44-year-old woman and one an elderly man—were killed at separate locations.

He added that nearly 400 people were evacuated from a 21-story building after it was struck by a drone.

Ukraine has targeted Russian infrastructure with drones throughout the war, in response to Russian shelling of its towns and cities.

"Systematic suppression"

These elections, the first since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, aim to renew all 450 seats in the State Duma, Russia’s lower parliamentary chamber, and are also being held in Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia.

Former president Dmitry Medvedev, who leads United Russia, said his party appears to have delivered "outstanding performance." The state news agency RIA quoted him saying, "We now need to implement the president’s decisions."

Only parties supporting, to varying degrees, Putin and the war in Ukraine were permitted to participate: the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic National Party, the conservative Fair Russia, and the liberal New People party.

The only openly anti-war party, Yabloko, was initially allowed to run but was excluded by the courts last month.

Putin had urged Russians to vote, describing the ballot as an expression of support for the military and a "response to those seeking to weaken Russia."

Electronic attacks

The Central Election Committee reported detecting "over 1,000" waves of attacks aimed at overwhelming the electronic voting system with requests, along with assaults targeting "Russia’s overall communications infrastructure."

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks aim to disable systems by flooding them with continuous streams of traffic.

Chairwoman Ilya Pamfilova stated that "the attacks were carried out by highly professional, well-coordinated groups using artificial intelligence tools," noting attempts showing "indications of Ukrainian involvement."

Pamfilova had earlier announced on Saturday that systems faced a "strong cyberattack" without causing disruption.

Russians face Western economic sanctions, repeated Ukrainian strikes, fuel shortages, and internet service restrictions across multiple regions.