RUSSIA HOLDS DUMA ELECTIONS AS UKRAINE LAUNCHES DRONE BARRAGE

Russia opened a three-day parliamentary election on Friday to fill all 450 seats in the State Duma, as Ukraine launched a barrage of drones on Moscow and other regions. Moscow's mayor reported that more than 350 Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian capital on Friday morning. Polling stations opened first in the Far East, with Kamchatka and Chukotka becoming the first of Russia's 11 time zones to vote, before polls spread across the country. Voting continues until 18:00 GMT on Sunday, when around 111 million eligible voters will have had the chance to cast ballots. President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, which has dominated Russian politics since 2000, is expected to win the most seats.

Only political parties that back the war have been registered to stand in the national party-list ballot. Yabloko, described as the sole party opposing the conflict, was excluded from that ballot in August, though some of its candidates are still running in individual constituencies, according to one report, which noted many have also been barred from those races. Voting is also taking place via remote electronic balloting in several regions and in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, including Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea, which Ukraine and Western governments consider illegal. Outside Russia, 333 polling stations are operating across 152 countries, with early voting already completed in remote areas and among soldiers.

The Kremlin is watching turnout closely, with Putin said to present high participation as a sign of national unity and support for the war. With protests banned and no anti-war candidates standing in the national ballot, the vote offers a measure of public sentiment after a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people since February 2022. Ukraine has continued near-nightly drone attacks on Russian energy and economic infrastructure, which one report said has caused billions of rubles in damage. The election also comes amid fuel shortages, economic pressure and renewed fears of mobilisation affecting daily life across Russia, according to one report.