Russia’s elections will have few surprises, but for the Kremlin they matter

“All parties in the Duma, every single one, voted in favour of 170 laws to support the special military operation,” Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov told me with obvious pride about the last parliament.

“In that sense there is 100% agreement in the Duma.”

I caught up with Zyuganov on the campaign trail outside Moscow at a bread and biscuit factory. As I watched rows of identical-looking loaves speeding along the conveyer I thought about Russia’s parliament. It’s not that all parties in the Duma are identical: some are more nationalist, others – like Zyuganov’s party – more left-wing.

But when it comes to backing the Kremlin’s legislative initiatives and supporting the “special military operation” they vote the same way. Such “systemic” parties are vital cogs in Russia’s Kremlin-centric political machine.

And if a party doesn’t support the war?

One such party – Yabloko – is calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Back in July it was the only anti-war party in Russia to be registered for the election. Twelve days later, though, the Supreme Court removed it from the ballot. That was widely interpreted as a sign of Kremlin concern that anti-war messaging could strike a chord with Russian voters.

Despite Yabloko’s exclusion from the party list, some of its candidates are still running in individual constituency races. Though in recent weeks growing numbers of Yabloko candidates have been detained by police, prosecuted for various offences and barred from the election.

“The police are carrying out a political order. That’s no secret,” Yabloko candidate Grigory Grishin tells me.

“This way, the authorities are setting the boundaries within which they believe the elections should take place.

“It is well known that the demand for an end to the bloodshed in this conflict with Ukraine is very popular. In my opinion, most people in Russia now want peace and Yabloko helped people express this. That’s why it’s been excluded from the party lists, and why individual candidates are being barred.”