Every few years, Russia stages an election not to determine power but to consecrate it. This weekend's parliamentary vote is less a democratic exercise than a choreographed affirmation of Kremlin authority, designed to lend legitimacy to Vladimir Putin and the ongoing war in Ukraine. The machinery of managed democracy—loyal parties, barred opponents, jailed monitors—ensures the result is known before a single ballot is cast. What endures is the ritual, and what the ritual conceals is the absence of any real choice.
Russia's Managed Election: Kremlin Seeks Validation for War Despite Suppressed Dissent
Opposition candidates detained and prosecuted; Yabloko candidates barred from elections; families separated by war in Ukraine.