RUSSIA BEGINS THREE-DAY PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION VOTE

Voting began on Friday in a three-day election for Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, according to reports. President Vladimir Putin has framed the vote as a measure of public support for the war in Ukraine, one report said. It is the first parliamentary election since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, and most anti-war candidates have been excluded from the ballot. Another report said the contest lacks meaningful competition and that its result will not reflect genuine support for Putin or the war.

Russians have voted nine times for the State Duma since it was created in 1993, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, one report said. Analysts describe Russian elections as historically "managed" and different from Western-style contests involving open debate and protest. Voters have traditionally accepted this in exchange for stability, a share of oil revenue, or a sense of restored national status after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the report said. This year's vote follows around five years of war in Ukraine and rising economic strain, which one report said has left the country weary.

Putin faces pressure to retain the position he has held since the turn of the century, one report said. Andrei Kolesnikov, described as an independent political analyst and Kremlin critic in Moscow, said the elections were likely to be "the most inconspicuous elections in the history of post-Soviet Russia." One report said perceptions of Russia as a straightforward dictatorship are contested, with analysts describing its political system as more complex and pointing to a Kremlin-maintained "systemic opposition." The report said the public has little room to express dissent through the ballot.