The second day of Russia's three-day parliamentary elections was marked by reports of cyberattacks on voting systems and communications infrastructure. Russian authorities said on Saturday that the attacks had been repelled and had not disrupted the vote. The information was published by Reuters in recent hours.
The head of Russia's Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, said attacks on election infrastructure were continuing but that they were being successfully neutralized. In Moscow, the remote electronic voting system came under heavy attack overnight, authorities said.
The Russian Ministry of Digital Development separately reported an attempted sabotage of communications lines in the Far East. The ministry said connections had been restored and voting was not disrupted. Reuters notes that President Vladimir Putin has previously accused Ukraine of attempting to interfere in the election, but has not provided evidence to support this claim.
According to official data from the Central Election Commission, voter turnout in Russia as of 2:00 p.m. Moscow time on Saturday had reached 32.58%. Voting began on September 18 and will end on September 20. The first results are expected after the closing of the last polling stations on Sunday evening.
These are the first elections for the State Duma since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. All 450 deputies in the lower house of the Russian parliament are elected - half through party lists, the rest in single-member districts.
Political competition in the elections is limited. Reuters points out that most candidates who have openly declared themselves against the war in Ukraine are not allowed to participate. The liberal Yabloko party, which is pushing for a ceasefire, was hit by a Supreme Court ruling that it had violated election rules - charges the party denies. Its representatives are still running in some single-member districts.
The ruling United Russia party, which backs Vladimir Putin, has a dominant presence in the current Duma. The Kremlin is also presenting the elections as an indicator of public support for the state's wartime policies. Putin has urged citizens to vote and said the result should show that "millions of people stand behind" Russian servicemen.
The elections have also sparked a new diplomatic row with Moldova. Moscow plans to open 15 polling stations in the breakaway region of Transnistria, where Russia says about 220,000 residents hold Russian passports. Chisinau objected to the decision and described the opening of polling stations outside the Russian embassy as "unacceptable and hostile."
The Moldovan government says it cannot guarantee control over the election procedures in Transnistria. Russia rejects these objections and insists that Russian citizens in the region have the right to vote. In the 2021 elections, Moscow opened 27 polling stations there, with over 76% of voters supporting "United Russia."
Russia is also holding voting in Ukrainian territories it controls. Ukraine rejects the election process in the occupied regions and does not recognize its legitimacy.
There are currently no final results from the parliamentary vote. Voting continues until Sunday, September 20, and almost complete results are expected on Monday.