The Kremlin Holds ‘Free’ Elections. The Only Surprise Was the Detained Observers and the Disconnected Cameras.
The Kremlin’s fake votes were on full display again this week: Russia wrapped up three days of parliamentary voting with the result everyone already expected before a single polling station opened: a landslide for United Russia. International analysts had spent weeks noting the outcome was “decided in the Kremlin”; independent monitors described the vote as “administratively controlled”; and several organizations reported ballot-box stuffing, detained observers, and communication blackouts in some regions. None of it stopped state television from calling the day “historic.”
Kremlin Fake Votes: An Opposition That Never Made It to the Ballot
Before a single vote was counted, the outcome was, according to several international analysts, a formality: the main opposition parties simply weren’t allowed to run, and none of the parties that did compete dared question the war in Ukraine or mention Alexei Navalny by name. Time magazine and the Estonian think tank ICDS each concluded, in their own words, that the result was “decided in the Kremlin” weeks before voting began.
The Kyiv Independent documented the pattern in more detail: banned parties, candidates disqualified on technicalities, and a campaign in which, for the first time since the full-scale invasion began, not a single party on the ballot openly opposed the war.
Vbrosy, Karuseli, and Other Russian Words for ‘Ballot Stuffing’
Through years of practice, Russian has developed its own vocabulary for election fraud: “vbrosy” (stuffing ballot boxes) and “karuseli” (voting multiple times at different polling stations). According to Ukrainian outlet UNN, neither was in short supply this time either: the official count gave United Russia 53.5% of the vote — a figure reached, per observers cited by the outlet, “with ballot stuffing not absent.”
Independent outlet Meduza went further, explaining how the fraud system itself has degraded over the years to the point where barely any effort is needed to make the numbers add up. The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE), meanwhile, documented what it called the Kremlin’s “fake electoral observation ecosystem” — “independent” observers who echo the official script almost word for word.
Ballot Boxes and Soldiers in Occupied Ukrainian Territory
In Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, voting took place under a security presence that outlets like The New Voice of Ukraine bluntly called a “sham election”: mobile ballot boxes escorted by armed soldiers, public workers “invited” to vote under their supervisors’ watch, and, according to Pravda, independent observers detained and communication lines cut in several localities on voting day.
Kyiv called the process illegal and void under international law. Moscow called it “enthusiastic high turnout.” Both sides, to their credit, stayed perfectly on script.
The most remarkable part of all this isn’t that it happens — it’s been happening, with variations, for over twenty years — it’s that it now takes less and less effort. Once there’s no real opposition left on the ballot, once inconvenient observers turn up detained and polling-station cameras go dark right on cue, even the fraud becomes almost decorative: there’s no need to stuff too many ballot boxes when the result was already written in advance. As a democratic achievement, credit where it’s due. The credit, mind you, is purely choreographic.