Preliminary Central Election Commission data show United Russia winning more than 57% of the vote inside Russia and taking the largest number of seats in its history. Abroad, the picture was different: the party failed to finish first in many cities where Russian citizens voted, according to Radio Liberty, Current Time and Verstka, citing an analysis by the outlet Agentstvo.
The defeats came mainly in cities that drew large numbers of war opponents or men avoiding mobilization after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. New People, which some opposition supporters regard as more moderate in its backing for the war than other Russian parties, typically took first place there, with the Communist Party (KPRF) usually second.
United Russia took 5.56% in Barcelona, 8.94% in Almaty, 6.65% in The Hague, 4.09% in Belgrade and 3.94% in Da Nang, Vietnam. Similar results were recorded in London, Prague, Berlin and Yerevan.
New People also won in Dubai, where some members of Russia's business elite moved after the war began. United Russia received 16.07% there.
United Russia managed to finish first in Baku, Bishkek, Riga, Istanbul and Washington. More than 200,000 people voted abroad in total.
The Insider found that nearly a third of the votes for United Russia in Riga were cast by staff members of the Russian embassy itself, where Latvia's only polling station operated. According to Russia's Central Election Commission, United Russia took 37.15% there, New People 24.77% and the KPRF 21.67%.
Latvian police, who checked the documents of everyone who arrived, said only 290 Russian citizens wanted to vote, or 0.8% of the Russians living in Latvia who are eligible. Nine of them spoiled their ballots, according to the Central Election Commission. Yet the ballot boxes ended up holding 314 valid ballots, 120 of them for United Russia. Comparing the figures, The Insider concluded that embassy staff cast 34 votes for the ruling party.
Ilya Barabanov, a journalist with the BBC Russian Service who has been designated a foreign agent in Russia, said on Facebook that he came to the embassy with an internal passport rather than a foreign one, and that the commission spent nearly an hour before refusing to give him a ballot. United Russia's result in Riga fell anyway: it won 51.3% there in the 2021 elections.
According to Radio Liberty and Current Time, independent analysts describe a high level of falsification, achieved above all by inflating turnout. The Central Election Commission says the elections were honest.
The opposition and political emigres were not united in their approach to the vote: some called for a boycott, others for turning out and spoiling ballots. Yulia Navalnaya and Maxim Kats formed a joint list of recommended candidates to oppose United Russia in single-mandate districts. Navalnaya wrote that the results were "predictably a great disappointment," but that the campaign had shown there are "a huge number of people who oppose this government." The authorities are to certify the final results on September 25.
Sources differ: United Russia will receive about 350 of the 450 seats according to independent analysts' estimates, while the Central Election Commission calls the elections honest and independent analysts write of falsification through inflated turnout. Verstka reports that the ruling party lost the vote in 40 foreign countries, where New People and the KPRF won the most votes.