{
  "id": 8861648,
  "title": "Kremlin orchestrates Russian elections by manipulating votes and barring observers",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/kremlin-orchestrates-russian-elections-by-manipulating-votes-and",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-21T06:17:57.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Le Monde English",
    "slug": "le-monde-english",
    "url": "https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/09/21/kremlin-orchestrates-russian-elections-by-manipulating-votes-and-barring-observers_6757755_4.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Russia's parliamentary elections took place over three days, concluding on Sunday. According to New Voice of Ukraine, initial ballot counting showed the ruling United Russia party securing roughly 57% of the vote, followed by the Communist Party at around 14%, the Liberal Democratic Party at 9%, New People at 8%, and A Just Russia at 5.2%.\n\nThe online voting system showed a slightly different result, with United Russia drawing about 49% of the digital vote, followed by New People at 15.4% and the Communist Party at 12.3%. Incumbent or acting governors were leading in all eight regional contests, with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov securing 97.35% of the vote in preliminary results.\n\nLe Monde English reported that journalists and observers described the situation inside polling stations on the final day of voting, which coincided with over 1,000 Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia since Saturday evening. Moscow also staged elections in occupied areas of Ukraine, which Ukrainian officials condemned as illegal and urged citizens to boycott.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}