Putin says Western attempts to destabilize Russian elections have failed

Russian President Vladimir Putin met this Monday (28) with leaders of Russian political parties to take stock of the results of the country’s parliamentary elections, held between September 18 and 20. Putin noted that the electoral process was marked by attempts by Western intelligence agencies to “disrupt the Russian elections,” but that such attempts failed.

“All attempts to disrupt the election campaign and interfere in our internal affairs have completely failed. It is known that such attempts, including those involving terrorist methods and tools of foreign intelligence agencies, were planned and executed. But our people defended the sovereign right of the Russian people to determine their own future,” he said.

The Russian president took the opportunity to “once again thank the tens of millions of voters and citizens of our country”. This active participation in voting, this high voter turnout rate, guaranteed the unquestionable and unconditional legitimacy of the elections”, he highlighted.

The leader stated, in particular, that the vote demonstrated that defeating a country like Russia is impossible, therefore, according to him, “the victory will, without a doubt, be Russia’s”, referring to the context of the Ukrainian conflict.

“You know, when I saw the queues at the polling stations on television, I was once again convinced that our people are strong, courageous and educated; everyone understands perfectly well what is happening in Russia. And it became clear that these people cannot be intimidated. And it is impossible to defeat this people and this country. Therefore, the victory will, without a doubt, be ours,” he said.

The election renewed the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. The ruling United Russia party maintained a large majority, with 349 seats. The Communist Party won 37 seats, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) won 23, New People won 19, and Fair Russia won 17. The Rodina party won one seat.

The result also increased the presence of participants in the so-called “special military operation” (official name used by the Kremlin for the war in Ukraine) in parliament. Dozens of war veterans were elected to the Duma, in a process that the Russian government presented as an expression of recognition for the military participating in the conflict in Ukraine.