The 2026 Republic of Mordovia head election took place on 18–20 September 2026, on common election day, to elect the Head of the Republic of Mordovia, coinciding with the 2026 Mordovian legislative election and the 2026 Russian legislative election. Incumbent Head Artyom Zdunov won re-election for a second term in office.
Background In November 2020 Vladimir Volkov, who served as Head of the Republic of Mordovia since 2012, announced resignation in the middle of his second term. Reasons cited for Volkov's early resignations were his apathetic style of governance, rising state debt, health issues and public fatigue as Volkov has been a fixture in regional politics, previously serving as Prime Minister of Mordovia in 1995–2012. President of Russia Vladimir Putin appointed Prime Minister of Dagestan Artyom Zdunov, an ethnic Erzya, acting Head of the Republic of Mordovia following Volkov's resignation. Zdunov faced little opposition in a region long considered an "electoral sultanate" for United Russia and easily won an election for a full term in 2021 with 78.21% of the vote, while the party simultaneously won 42 seats (out of 48) in the State Assembly of the Republic of Mordovia.
Zdunov's term in office was rather uneventful if somewhat successful with him being mostly credited for improving the republic's chronically indebted budget, fighting corruption in the regional government and solving demographic problems. Major shifts occurred in the regional elite as Zdunov largely replaced associates close to former head Nikolay Merkushkin, who effectively controlled politics and economy of Mordovia since 1995, with officials from Tatarstan and Dagestan, where Zdunov had built his administrative career.
On May 4, 2026, Zdunov met with President Putin and asked his endorsement for the upcoming head election, which Putin agreed to.
Candidates In Mordovia candidates for Head of the Republic of Mordovia can be nominated only by registered political parties. Candidate for Head of the Republic of Mordovia should be a Russian citizen and at least 30 years old. Candidates for Head of the Republic of Mordovia should not have a foreign citizenship or residence permit. Each candidate in order to be registered is required to collect at least 7% of signatures of municipal deputies and heads of municipalities. Also head candidates present 3 candidacies to the Federation Council and election winner later appoints one of the presented candidates.
Declared Candidate name,political partyOccupationStatusRef.Aleksandr AleksandrovCommunist Party Member of Saransk Council of Deputies (2021–present)Aide to State Duma member Irina FilatovaRegisteredTimur GeraskinA Just Russia Member of State Assembly of the Republic of Mordovia (2021–present)2017 head candidateRegisteredDmitry MasserovThe Greens Mordovian State University department of ecology and natural resources headRegisteredYevgeny TyurinLiberal Democratic Party Deputy Chairman of the State Assembly of the Republic of Mordovia (2021–present)Member of the State Assembly (2016–present)2017 and 2021 head candidateRegisteredArtyom ZdunovUnited Russia Incumbent Head of the Republic of Mordovia (2020–present)RegisteredVladislav TulayevNew People Construction businessman Withdrew after registration
Candidates for Federation Council Incumbent Senator Sergey Kislyak (Independent) was not renominated. Head candidate,political partyCandidates for Federation CouncilStatusArtyom ZdunovUnited Russia* Sergey Ageyev, Member of State Assembly of the Republic of Mordovia (2021–present), glass manufacturing executive* Anatoly Gulin, former Chief Federal Inspector for Mordovia (2023–2026)* Andrey Kelin, former Ambassador of Russia to the United Kingdom (2019–2026)Registered
Finances All sums are in rubles. Financial Report Source Aleksandrov Geraskin Masserov Tulayev Tyurin Zdunov First 50,000 311,100 50,000 47,000 49,300 20,000,000 Final TBD TBD TBD TBD TBD TBD
Results
|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;" ! style="text-align:left;" colspan=2| Candidate ! style="text-align:left;"| Party ! width="75"|Votes ! width="30"|% |- | style="background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;"| Artyom Zdunov (incumbent) | style="text-align:left;"| United Russia | | 77.99 |- | style="background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;"| Aleksandr Aleksandrov | style="text-align:left;"| Communist Party | | 7.78 |- | style="background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;"| Yevgeny Tyurin | style="text-align:left;"| Liberal Democratic Party | | 7.43 |- | style="background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;"| Timur Geraskin | style="text-align:left;"| A Just Russia | | 3.85 |- | style="background-color:"| | style="text-align:left;"| Dmitry Masserov | style="text-align:left;"| The Greens | | 2.08 |- | style="text-align:left;" colspan="3"| Valid votes | | 99.13 |- | style="text-align:left;" colspan="3"| Blank ballots | | 0.87 |- style="font-weight:bold" | style="text-align:left;" colspan="3"| Total | | 100.00 |- | style="background-color:#E9E9E9;" colspan="6"| |- | style="text-align:left;" colspan="3"| Turnout | | 74.60 |- | style="text-align:left;" colspan="3"| Registered voters | | 100.00 |- | colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9;"| |- style="font-weight:bold" | colspan="4" |Source:
Head Zdunov appointed former Ambassador of Russia to the United Kingdom Andrey Kelin (Independent) to the Federation Council, replacing incumbent Senator Sergey Kislyak (Independent).
See also 2026 Russian regional elections
References