In September 2026, Russia's parliamentary elections returned a result that speaks less to democratic contest than to the architecture of consolidated power — United Russia, the party bound to Vladimir Putin, claimed a record 355 seats, a supermajority that renders legislative opposition not merely unlikely but structurally irrelevant. The election, held while Russia's military campaign in Ukraine entered its fourth year, offered a portrait of a political system that has progressively narrowed the corridors through which dissent might travel. History will note not only who won, but how complete