Russia's ruling party dominates wartime election amid drone attacks and opposition suppression

In a nation reshaped by war, Russia held its first wartime parliamentary elections across three days, producing the result its architects had designed: an overwhelming mandate for the ruling United Russia party and, by extension, for the invasion that has defined the country's trajectory since 2022. The Kremlin constructed the vote not as a contest but as a ceremony — a ritual of legitimacy performed while Ukrainian drones struck Russian soil and genuine opposition voices remained imprisoned, exiled, or erased from the ballot. History will record not merely who won, but what kind of winning wa