Russia’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for 19 September, are causing concern in the Kremlin. Although polls in the Russian Federation are typically neither free nor fair, Vladimir Putin is accustomed to using their results to assert his legitimacy as president. The Putin-backed United Russia party easily secured a supermajority at the last parliamentary election in 2016, facing no major public protests or viable political opponents – albeit on a turnout of just 48 per cent. But much has changed for the worse since then, threatening to push turnout even lower and endanger Putin’s mandate.
Over the last 18 months, Russia has recorded more than 140,000 Covid-19 deaths. Anxious about his plummeting popularity, Putin lifted the partial lockdown more than a year ago, while fiddling mortality figures to create a false sense of security. This summer, as state television lauded the president’s pandemic response and the rollout of Russian-made vaccine Sputnik-V, the country experienced its most deadly wave of the virus. Putin’s lies have been exposed by Russia’s few remaining independent media outlets. Hospitals have been overwhelmed, undermining his carefully constructed image as the paternalist tsar.
