Updated

Russia is holding elections for the ninth State Duma from September 18-20, 2026, with the disqualification of Yabloko—the only antiwar party—being the campaign's biggest development. In St. Petersburg's Krasnogvardeysky District, several Yabloko representatives serving on precinct commissions have reported being pressured or removed ahead of the vote. Days before the election, an anonymous hacking group calling itself CikLeak claimed it had breached the IT infrastructure of Russia's Central Election Commission and contractors developing the state's Vybory 2.0 automated election system, saying it downloaded server configurations and internal documents. The claimed breach adds a new dimension of controversy to an already tightly controlled electoral process.