Legislative elections were held in Russia from 18 to 20 September 2026, to elect all 450 seats of the 9th State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly. Going into the election, United Russia was the incumbent and largest party with 310 seats.

The legislative election took place during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. It was the first Russian legislative election to take place in the occupied territories of Ukraine and it was also held for Russian nationals in Transnistria, an occupied unrecognized breakaway region of Moldova.

Background Legislative elections were last held in 2021 from 17 to 19 September. United Russia once again obtained a constitutional majority with 324 seats, but lost 14 party-list seats and 5 constituency seats. The Communist Party (CPRF) remained in second with 57 seats, with A Just Russia – For Truth and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) remaining in third and fourth place with 27 and 21 seats respectively. A Just Russia merged with Patriots of Russia and Zakhar Prilepin's For Truth party in January 2021.

For the first time since the 2003 elections, more than four parties crossed the 5 percent threshold to be allocated party-list seats: the CPRF increased its party-list seats from 35 to 48 seats; the LDPR decreased from 34 to 19; A Just Russia – For Truth increased from 16 to 19, related to the merger of A Just Russia with Patriots of Russia and For Truth party; and the right-liberal New People party gained 13 seats. However, the 2021 election is considered by opposition not alleged to have links to the Kremlin to be falsified, unfair, and unjust due to systematic violations and the exclusion of independent candidates and parties.

Presidential elections were last held in 2024 from 15 to 17 March 2024, with a record turnout of 77.49%. Incumbent president Vladimir Putin was re-elected with 87.28% of the vote. The election was considered by non-systemic opposition to be the most unfair and unjust election in the history of Russia.

The non-systemic opposition have previously attempted to participate in Russian elections. Smart Voting was utilized during the 2021 legislative election, and in the 2024 presidential election spoilt voting and voting for anyone except Vladimir Putin was encouraged. Alongside this, protests occurred which were organised by the Noon Against Putin campaign. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent , politicians and public figures from the non-systemic opposition were subject to imprisonment, being designated as foreign agents, or being forced to emigrate. The leader of the non-systemic opposition, Alexei Navalny, died in prison on 16 February 2024.

On 10 August 2026, the Russian Supreme Court banned the principal opposition party, Yabloko, from participating in the election. The pro-Kremlin Rodina party had brought a case against them, accusing them of copyright infringement, extremism, and receiving ilicit foreign funding. The party had received support from the non-systemic opposition including Yulia Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny's widow, as well as Lyubov Sobol, Ilya Yashin, Andrei Pivovarov, Dmitry Bykov, and Oleg Orlov. On the same day, the party's deputy leader, Lev Shlosberg, was sentenced to 11 years and one month in a penal colony over his opposition to the war in Ukraine. Dozens of supporters and journalists who came to hear the Supreme Court's decision were detained and moved to nearby police stations, which party leader Nikolay Rybakov decried as intimidation.

Preparation for the election In June 2026, Interfax estimated that the Russian CEC may receive up to ₽27.4 billion, of which 23.3 billion rubles would be directed towards organizing the State Duma elections.

On 16 June 2026, president Vladimir Putin signed a decree scheduling the elections for 20 September 2026.

On 17 June 2026, the CEC published a calendar of events for the preparation and conduct of the elections to the State Duma of Russia.Календарный план мероприятий по подготовке и проведению выборов депутатов Государственной Думы Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации девятого созыва It was aace nnounced that the elections to the State Duma and other combined elections and referendums will take plover several consecutive days. The election slogan was introduced: "Your vote is the strength of Russia".

Electoral system

Under Russian electoral law, a State Duma's term is limited to a maximum of five years and each seat is elected via a parallel voting system. This means that half of the seats are elected under a party-list proportional representation system with a threshold of 5 percent; and the other half are elected in 225 single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting.

For the proportional seats, candidates are nominated by political parties, and political party lists must include between 200 and 400 candidates. The list can include candidates who are not party members, but they cannot make up more than 50% of the total candidates on the list. The party list may also be divided into federal and regional sections, of which the latter includes regional groupings of candidates that correspond to the federal subjects of Russia. The number of regional groups must be at least 35, and a maximum of 15 candidates can be included on federal section of candidates. The regional parts of the party list must cover the entire territory of Russia. A party's list can be formed from solely regional groups, as having a federal section is not mandatory.

In the FPTP seats, candidates can be nominated by political parties or themselves. The political party must provide a list of candidates to the Central Election Commission, and the list must contain the name and number of the constituencies in which each candidate is planning to run in. Self nominations, party nominations, must submit applications to the District Election Commissions. Self nominated candidates must collect signatures from at least 3% of voters in the constituency, or at least 3,000 signatures if the constituency has less than 100,000 registered voters. A candidate can be nominated in both types of constituency however if elected in both seats they must vacate one of the seats.

Electronic voting which was used against electoral fraud, in the previous legislative election and elections to Moscow City Duma, was planned to be rolled out to 33 regions and would cover roughly 48 million eligible voters during the election.

Redistricting

The State Duma constituencies were last redrawn in 2015 to be used for a period of ten years. In April 2025 the Central Election Commission of Russia introduced a new map of 225 constituencies which would be used for the 2026 elections. Unlike previous redistricting, the new constituencies will be used for a period of five years, meaning they will be redrawn again before the next Russian legislative election. In the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, constituencies were established in the regions which have been occupied since 2022. Three were created in Donetsk, two in Luhansk, one in Kherson, and one in Zaporizhzhia; the constituencies in Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, were significantly re-arranged.

Within Russia's internationally recognized borders, three regions gained one constituency each: Moscow (16), Moscow Oblast (12) and Krasnodar Krai (9), while ten regions – Rostov Oblast (6), Altai Krai (3), Volgograd Oblast (3), Voronezh Oblast (3), Zabaykalsky Krai (1), Ivanovo Oblast (1), Kaluga Oblast (1), Smolensk Oblast (1), Tambov Oblast (1), Tomsk Oblast (1) lost one constituency. Constituencies were significantly re-arranged in Dagestan, Tatarstan, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Sverdlovsk Oblast and Saint Petersburg, minor changes were made to districts in Chuvashia, Kursk Oblast, Leningrad Oblast, Lipetsk Oblast, Samara Oblast, Ulyanovsk Oblast and Vladimir Oblast. Furthermore, most of the constituencies in Krasnodar Krai and Rostov Oblast were renamed.

On 20 May 2025, the State Duma adopted the new constituency map during the third reading by a 396–3 vote with Galina Khovanskaya (SR–ZP), Marina Kim (SR–ZP) and Yevgeny Marchenko (Independent) voting against the changes. Khovanskaya raised vocal opposition to the new map, objecting the removal of Sokol District from her constituency, Leningradsky. On 21 May the Federation Council unanimously approved the new map and on 23 May, President Vladimir Putin signed the bill into law.

New seats Ten new districts were created after the 2025 redistricting process: Makiivka constituency (Donetsk People's Republic) Donetsk constituency (Donetsk People's Republic) Horlivka constituency (Donetsk People's Republic) Luhansk constituency (Luhansk People's Republic) Alchevsk constituency (Luhansk People's Republic) South-Western constituency (Krasnodar Krai) Zaporizhzhia constituency (Zaporizhzhia Oblast) Mytishchi constituency (Moscow Oblast) Kherson constituency (Kherson Oblast) Solntsevo constituency (Moscow)

Seats eliminated The following districts were eliminated and became obsolete: Rubtsovsk constituency (Altai Krai) Dauria constituency (Zabaykalsky Krai) Krasnoarmeysky constituency (Volgograd Oblast) Pravoberezhny constituency (Voronezh Oblast) Kineshma constituency (Ivanovo Oblast) Obninsk constituency (Kaluga Oblast) Shakhty constituency (Rostov Oblast) Roslavl constituency (Smolensk Oblast) Rasskazovo constituency (Tambov Oblast) Ob constituency (Tomsk Oblast)

Political parties

As of December 2023, 25 political parties are registered in Russia. According to nomination rules, a party must collect 200,000 signatures to be eligible to appear on the ballot. Parties already represented in the State Duma via party-list seats or represented in at least one of regional parliaments (also by party list) are automatically included.списке политических партий, на которые распространяется действие части 2 статьи 44 Федерального закона «О выборах депутатов Государственной Думы Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации»

Parties Automatically on ballot This list contains political parties that have held conventions, nominated candidates and successfully had their party and candidates registered. As of 30 July 2026, all parties eligible for automatic inclusion on the ballot have held conventions, submitted their lists and obtained their registration.