What Russia’s Parliamentary Election Results Mean for Putin and the War

“They have every resource available to them to change the political system as Putin directs,” Szakonyi says, “and the propaganda in the next week or two is going to heavily emphasize the fact that United Russia improved its performance.”

Parliament could specifically use the election to request more sacrifices from citizens for the war effort, according to Szakonyi. He says, for example, that the party could support legislation expanding military recruitment or defending “greater investment in the war effort, at the expense of healthcare, education, and domestic spending in general.” 

“It is highly possible that they will at least kind of build on these electoral results when they demand more from voters and citizens in the next couple months in order to win the war,” he continues.

Olena Lennon, a practitioner in residence of National Security at the University of New Haven, agrees that Putin did not necessarily need any more legislative power to exact his objectives. Instead, the election was “more about creating an image of national unity and demonstrating to various audiences that Putin has total political control,” she says, adding that hosting an election offers the “optics of popular legitimacy, institutional strength, and political stability.”