{
  "id": 9724478,
  "title": "Linear Russia",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/25/linear-russia",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-25T07:07:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Riddle Russia - Politics",
    "slug": "riddle-russia-politics",
    "url": "https://ridl.io/linear-russia/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Russia's State Duma elections concluded on September 21, with the United Russia party securing 58 percent of the vote, according to the Central Election Commission. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) garnered 13.67 percent, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) 8.96 percent, while New People received 7.91 percent and A Just Russia 5.1 percent. All other parties received less than 2 percent each. As of Thursday evening, results from several thousand polling stations remained unprocessed, including those in four occupied Ukrainian territories and Leningrad Oblast, as well as Bashkortostan. This delay was unusual, as results typically appeared by Monday morning in every other region. Consequently, A Just Russia managed to cross the electoral threshold during this period, despite still having less than 5 percent nationwide until late Monday. A discrepancy emerged during the final stages, as the party's vote share surged from 4.97 percent to 5.1 percent after just 0.42 percent of protocols were processed. In St Petersburg, A Just Russia received over 80 percent of the vote at polling stations No. 2186 and No. 2201, while United Russia received only 11.7 percent at the latter location. The voting conditions played a significant role in shaping the election's outcome. The authorities altered laws over the past five years, making polling station monitoring more challenging. The largest election-monitoring group, Golos, was disbanded, and other specialized organizations suffered a decline. Remote electronic voting (REV) was introduced in 33 regions, and three-day voting became standard. Video monitoring became largely ineffective due to the denial of access to live feeds for single-mandate candidates. Early voting in 12 regions, including occupied Ukrainian territories, also contributed to the election's unique dynamics. Turnout in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine surpassed 74 percent in the Donetsk People's Republic, 52 percent in the occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast, 47 percent in Kherson Oblast, and 38 percent in Sevastopol.",
  "summary": "Ksenia Smolyakova on how the Russia authorities got the result they wanted in the State Duma election",
  "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."
}