The True Meaning of Russia’s Sham Election

What Putin's Sham Elections Say About Russia

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Analysis: The True Meaning of Russia’s Sham Election

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Analysis

The True Meaning of Russia’s Sham Election

Even rigged elections used to be an outlet for discontent. That avenue is now closed.

By **Alexander Baunov**, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

!Election billboard in Moscow

*Election billboard in Moscow*

An election campaign billboard for the ruling United Russia party is seen near the Russian Foreign Ministry building in central Moscow on Sept. 2. Alexander NEMENOV / AFP via Getty Images

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September 29, 2026, 5:56 AM

What passes for elections in Russia these days bears little resemblance to any recognizably democratic process. Opposition figures are jailed, exiled, or dead. Remaining candidates are carefully screened. In Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, ballots are cast at gunpoint. Some precincts’ vote tallies are mathematically impossible, and most Russians know that the outcome is predetermined. But in a dictatorship, even a rigged election has meaning. What matters is not the predictable victory declared by the ruling party, United Russia, following the Sept. 18-20 parliamentary elections but the signals that this completely orchestrated piece of political theater sends across Russia and to the world.

The first signal is the illusion of legitimacy. By adhering to constitutionally mandated electoral cycles, an autocrat asserts his legal claim to power—never mind that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mandate from the last more or less genuine election in 2000 has long expired. Putin is very fond of recalling his studies to become a lawyer, and one of the words he has used most often in all his public speeches is “law.” In the process of building his dictatorship, Putin always thought to keep the legal fabric intact. On the surface at least, procedures should be followed—a sham legality we know from other dictatorships, including the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

What passes for elections in Russia these days bears little resemblance to any recognizably democratic process. Opposition figures are jailed, exiled, or dead. Remaining candidates are carefully screened. In Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, ballots are cast at gunpoint. Some precincts’ vote tallies are mathematically impossible, and most Russians know that the outcome is predetermined. But in a dictatorship, even a rigged election has meaning. What matters is not the predictable victory declared by the ruling party, United Russia, following the Sept. 18-20 parliamentary elections but the signals that this completely orchestrated piece of political theater sends across Russia and to the world.

The first signal is the illusion of legitimacy. By adhering to constitutionally mandated electoral cycles, an autocrat asserts his legal claim to power—never mind that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mandate from the last more or less genuine election in 2000 has long expired. Putin is very fond of recalling his studies to become a lawyer, and one of the words he has used most often in all his public speeches is “law.” In the process of building his dictatorship, Putin always thought to keep the legal fabric intact. On the surface at least, procedures should be followed—a sham legality we know from other dictatorships, including the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

Right now, holding elections generates an extra sense of self-righteousness for Putin as he seeks to delegitimize his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian Constitution, like that of various other democracies, bans the holding of elections during wartime. Putin will thus try to argue that Zelensky’s term in office has expired while he himself is legitimately elected and just scored another resounding “victory” for his party. Never mind that the word “election” has a completely different meaning in the two countries. In Russia, voters cannot loosen Putin’s grip on power. This distinction will, of course, be lost on U.S. President Donald Trump, who echoes Putin’s lies about Zelensky’s electoral legitimacy.

The second signal of this recent vote concerns Russia’s borders. Holding national elections—first presidential, then parliamentary—in the occupied parts of Ukraine is supposed to shore up the legitimacy of Russian control, even if those elections take place at gunpoint and are otherwise manipulated. If the residents of illegally annexed territory vote in Russian national elections, after all, that must mean they are Russians now and acknowledge Moscow’s authority. This is how the Kremlin spins it both in Russia and abroad.

No one knows how many Ukrainians remain in these areas or how many current residents moved there from Russia since 2014 (and especially since 2022), not to mention the number of Russian military and security personnel voting in these front-line areas. This attempt to legitimize Russia’s illegal annexations may hold no weight outside the bubble that surrounds the Russian dictator and his supporters. But it is part of Putin’s logic of sham legality.

The third signal is about shifting popular support. Elections may not pose a direct threat to the regime in terms of losing power, but even highly manipulated results can be a political barometer. What the regime chooses to ban sends a message as well.

For example, the most fervently militaristic party, A Just Russia, lost 11 of its 27 seats after struggling even to clear the minimum threshold needed to enter the Duma. (T