Vladimir Putin's United Russia party has secured a record supermajority in Russia's Duma (Parliament), winning 355 of 450 seats in a tightly controlled election held in March 2026. This represents an increase from their previous record of 343 seats and comes amid growing concerns that Putin could use this electoral victory to justify a fresh mass mobilisation of troops to bolster depleted frontline forces in Ukraine. The election was the first parliamentary poll since Russia's 2022 invasion and excluded parties critical of the Kremlin or the war, with Moscow also banning criticism of its military campaign. The result is expected to tighten Putin's grip on power and give his party a free hand for constitutional changes.

The election recorded a turnout of over 59 per cent, with authorities reporting it as evidence of consolidated public support for Putin, who has been in power since 1999. Ukrainian intelligence has indicated that the Kremlin plans to mobilise approximately 300,000 additional soldiers following the elections, though Putin has denied such plans. Other parties securing seats include the Communist Party (40 seats), the nationalist LDPR (25 seats) and the New People party (20 seats). Notably, forty-nine war veterans are expected to enter parliament, whilst the anti-war Yabloko party, excluded from federal candidacy, unexpectedly entered the regional legislature in Novgorod with 12,000 votes—a rare dissenting voice in an otherwise carefully controlled electoral landscape.