A few observations on Russia’s election spectacle: ✅ Russia is a dictatorship. There are no free elections and no genuine domestic political process. The real opposition has been destroyed. ✅ Every party allowed into the “elections” plays a role assigned by the Kremlin. The result is scripted in advance. United Russia is expected to secure a constitutional majority. ✅ Turnout matters to the Kremlin. If 50% cannot be reached at the ballot box, the numbers can always be fixed on paper. ✅ The State Duma “elections” are illegitimate under international law because Russia is holding them in Ukrainian territories it temporarily occupies through its war of aggression. The free world should treat the resulting Duma accordingly and reject cooperation with it. ✅ Whatever happens on the ballot will not change Russia’s strategic course. Parliament and government do not make policy in Putin’s Russia. They implement the dictator’s will. ✅ The real question is mobilisation. Russia is suffering more killed and wounded in Ukraine than it can replace through recruitment. The coming months will show how far the Kremlin is prepared to go — including whether Moscow and St Petersburg will finally be asked to pay a greater human price. ✅ Russia’s economy is under growing pressure, but the regime can still sustain its war machine for the foreseeable future. These “elections” change nothing. ✅ Finally, the European context. Voluntarily voting in Russia’s “elections” means voting for the war and against peace. Russian citizens living in Europe who choose to participate are casting their votes in support of the war and against Europe’s security interests.

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