Russian parliamentary 'election' was a farce - Murniece

RIGA - The Russian parliamentary "election" was a complete farce, Saeima Speaker Inara Murniece told LETA.

Murniece said that the Russian parliamentary "election" was neither free nor democratic. She added that Yabloko, the only political party that opposed the war, was excluded from the electoral process. "Of course, this ‘election’ was a complete farce," said Murniece.

The Saeima speaker noted that, in her view, the Russian State Duma will remain roughly in the same mood or just as easily controlled as it was before. She assessed that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will try to portray Russian society as supporting the continuation of the war.

Although Putin has been very careful to state that mobilization will not take place today, Russian society is probably already anticipating the possibility of mobilization, Murniece said. In her view, mobilization is highly likely. "The question is about the way it will be carried out - more covertly or overtly," the lawmaker said.

In Murniece’s assessment, Putin will continue the war, using the "election" as a supposedly clear mandate from the public for his policies and the continuation of the war.

"We must expect both the fall and winter on the Ukrainian front to be difficult, and I think we must also expect hybrid attacks and sabotage acts within the territories of the European Union (EU) and NATO, because right now, after the election, I believe that ‘all restraints will be removed’ and Russia will continue its current course with even greater intensity, intimidating the West to deter it from aiding Ukraine," the speaker said.

As reported, the ruling party United Russia "won" the so-called Russian parliamentary elections, securing more than half of the votes.

According to results based on 83.52 percent of the ballots counted, United Russia received 57.82 percent of the votes, the election commission stated on Monday.

United Russia candidates are also leading in 208 of the 225 single-member districts.

According to preliminary estimates, the ruling party will hold 338 of the 450 seats in the State Duma, securing the two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution.

In Russia’s three-day electoral farce, only parties that support dictator Vladimir Putin and Russia’s war against Ukraine were allowed to participate. Russia’s only anti-war party, Yabloko, was barred from participating in the "elections".

Consequently, only the parties previously represented in the State Duma were elected - the Communists with 13.84 percent of the vote, the Liberal Democratic Party, once founded by the late Vladimir Zhirinovsky, with 8.77 percent of the vote, and the pseudo-liberal party New People with 7.07 percent of the vote.

At the same time, according to preliminary results, the Just Russia party, with 4.99 percent of the vote, failed to clear the 5 percent threshold required for entry into the State Duma.

According to official data, voter turnout reached 56 percent, which is higher than in the previous State Duma election in 2021.

Despite protests from Kyiv and the international community, the so-called elections were held for the first time in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, where voting often took place under the barrel of the invaders’ guns.