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00:00:00the support of more than 100 million
00:00:04of voters in the race for 450
00:00:07seats, who will fail and who
00:00:10will
00:00:11prevail?
00:00:22of
00:00:24of Russia's first
00:00:27parliamentary election since the beginning. the Ukraine conflict
00:00:31wrap up and the counting
00:00:33of the votes begins. We're bringing you our special coverage as the
00:00:37world's geographically biggest country
00:00:39of has its democratic say. Moscow says Kiev
00:00:43tried to undermine the elections with a massive attack as almost
00:00:472,000 drones and missiles were intercepted
00:00:50in a single day. The targeted assault on the Russian capital left
00:00:54several people death. And that is
00:00:58my vote, one of tends. of
00:01:00me millions being cast around the don bass, but with every
00:01:04vote cast in the don bass, the people
00:01:07of the donbas show, but those threats don't
00:01:11scare
00:01:12of them. Russians cast their ballots despite threats and daily
00:01:16shelling from Ukraine. That's as the
00:01:18in Kiev regime insists elections cannot be held during
00:01:21wartime. Nevertheless, Russians ventured out to the polls,
00:01:25including near the front lines and in other border regions.
00:01:29Generally. speaking, it is very difficult to
00:01:32of intimidate me, it's just not in my nature.
00:01:35of firstly, i don't recognize the landscate all and i don't watch him on tv. as for
00:01:39scammers, they've already left me
00:01:41of alone. we have lived too long to be
00:01:45of intimidated.
00:01:57in this has been the third and final day of voting in Russia. as
00:02:00parliamentary elections. Pols have just closed in the country's
00:02:04western most region
00:02:05of and the first preliminary results are expected a bit later
00:02:09a
00:02:09of tonight. of RT has been keeping
00:02:10a close tab on the developmentts bringing you all the latest
00:02:14of updates as part of our
00:02:15of special
00:02:15coverage.
00:02:20of
00:02:27As voting in the nationwide
00:02:29of parliamentary of election. wraps up, the scale
00:02:31of the process, which spans across
00:02:33of 11 time zones, has been immense, with voter turnout
00:02:37surpassing 56%. Russian citizens have
00:02:41exercised their constitutional right to define their future for the
00:02:44next five years. In the country's new regions, more than four
00:02:48million residents have cast their
00:02:50of ballots early elections. In the frontline Republics of
00:02:54Doniesk and Lugansk, people under the threat of
00:02:56of attack could not be deterred and
00:02:58in voted. Locals. from one
00:03:00of the most iconic regions of Russia, Crimea, actively
00:03:04participated in choosing their
00:03:08of representatives. Oh, let's cross now to RT correspondent, Isabella Bloombburg, joining us from
00:03:12our
00:03:12in studio just outside the Kremlin, Isabella, thank you for joining
00:03:16us, give us more details on who has been in the
00:03:19race. Thank
00:03:23you, Nicki, well, it's 9 p.m. here in the Russian capital and polling
00:03:27stations on now
00:03:28of closed nationwide. in Russia
00:03:30of on the third and final day of parliamentary elections. The
00:03:34Central Electoral Commission reports that um the
00:03:38overall turnout has surpassed the 2021 election,
00:03:42reaching
00:03:43a over
00:03:44of 56% voter turn out. It's also quite important I think to
00:03:48mention here that these are the first parliamentary elections we're seeing since the start
00:03:51of the special military
00:03:53of operation which was launched back in February
00:03:56a 2022 and for the first time in modern Russian history we're seeing citizens from the four.
00:04:00regions in the SMO zone cast their vallet as Russian
00:04:03of citizens as well, so let me
00:04:05of just take you through how the parliamentary elections actually
00:04:09work, because the Russian state doomer is the lower chamber
00:04:15of of of the federal assembly consisting of 400 seats uh those seats are divided into two uh these
00:04:19of parliamentary elections as well take
00:04:20of place every five years
00:04:23of uh the first 250 seats
00:04:24of are selected through party list now what that means is that the voters are
00:04:28able to uh cast their
00:04:31of ballot and vote for a specific political
00:04:33a party, the other 250 seats are determined through single mandate
00:04:37districts. now this
00:04:38of means that voters are able to select a specific candidate in that
00:04:42constituency, but for a political party to actually get through
00:04:46to the state doomer, political party has to acquire or meet
00:04:50of that of 5% threshhold. voting in Russia um takes
00:04:54place in this three-day window instead of a traditional one-day window, starting on
00:04:58September the 18th and ending today. on Sunday on September
00:05:02the 20th. There
00:05:03in are currently 10 political parties on the federal
00:05:05of ballot, first one being United Russia founded in
00:05:092001, a party that has enjoyed constitutional
00:05:12majority in the duma. the second party we have is the communist
00:05:16party the Russian federation considered the oldest on the ballot and
00:05:20also the second largest faction in the duma. we have a
00:05:23just Russia party founded in 2006. Paul suggests it will be able to
00:05:27meet the 5% threshhold during these elections as well.
00:05:31and of course we have the LDPR, the Liberal Democratic Party of
00:05:35Russia now chaired by Leonard Slotski after the death of its
00:05:39former charismatic leader Vladimir Zarinovski back in 2020.
00:05:43Of course we have new party on the scene here, relatively new, it was
00:05:47founded in 2020 and it actually curiously managed to
00:05:50garna 5% the vote during those previous el elections, it will be quite
00:05:54interesting to see whether they will be able to uh pass that thresh hold
00:05:58during these elections as well, and then of course we have the
00:06:01non-parliamentary parties here as well, including the greens,
00:06:05the rodina, pensioners party, the communists of Russia and the
00:06:08party of direct democracy, you as of now we'll be keeping our
00:06:12eyes peeled on the central electoral commission's you know
00:06:16um preliminary results? thank you
00:06:20as we know as people spent the whole weekend going out to to cast
00:06:23their ballots there was a huge
00:06:27attack by Ukraine, the Russian defense ministry described it as
00:06:31attempt by Kiev sabotage the elections, what more can you tell us about
00:06:35this? I mean absolutely Nikki,
00:06:39as you've just been saying overnight Moscow and the nearby regions... came
00:06:42under what officials are calling one the largest Ukrainian drone attacks
00:06:46since the start the war between Russia and Ukraine. now Moscow
00:06:50says that overnight 450 drones were intercepted
00:06:54and those drones were apparently
00:06:55you know headed to Moscow. the the Russian Mod has
00:06:59reported that um over
00:07:011,950 drones and aerial targets were also
00:07:05intercepted across a Russian territory this over the course of
00:07:0824 hours. you know the Mod says that this was a...
00:07:12deliberate attempt by Kiev to undermine Russia's parliamentary
00:07:16elections. to undermine
00:07:20the democratic will the citizens the Russian Federation, as
00:07:24expressed in the elections to the state Duma the Federal Assembly
00:07:27the Russian Federation. The Kiev regime launched a massive
00:07:31attack on the territory the Russian Federation on September
00:07:3419th and 20th of this year, using UAVs and
00:07:38Flamingo cruise missiles. In response to the Kiev regime's attempt.
00:07:42on civilian targets on Russian territory, the armed forces the Russian
00:07:46Federation will intensify their strikes with high precision
00:07:50weapons against military targets in
00:07:52Kieve. In terms of casualties and
00:07:56damages, in the Moscow and nearby regions, two people have been
00:07:59killed, and 20 required medical assistance, three them
00:08:03being children, and emit this drone attack, the central electoral
00:08:06commission reported that one of its staff members was actually injured in the
00:08:10Moscow region, and it's not just... moscow and the nearby regions because
00:08:14Kieve has been actively targeting civilians in the special
00:08:18military operation zone. For example, a Ukrainian drone hit
00:08:21a school in Zaparogia region, a polling station was
00:08:25apparently inside. Fortunately, no casualties were reported
00:08:28there, but then we also saw another attack in the HSON region where a
00:08:32Ukrainian drone targeted passenger bus there, kill
00:08:36- two people were killed that, including woman working a
00:08:40local polling station. Again, I think it's rather important to
00:08:44point out to underline the fact that Kief has been ramping up these
00:08:47drone strikes, these drone attacks on not just civilians
00:08:50but also civilian infrastructure as Russians are heading to the
00:08:54final to to vote in the final
00:09:10stations were open in Russian embassies to. in many locations for
00:09:13citizens who are currently abroad. Here are some pictures from locations
00:09:17around the world from Armenia to the UAE. Russian voters are
00:09:21also showing up to cast their ballots in EU countries. Some these
00:09:25expatriates say it's important to express their position issues, even
00:09:29if they live
00:09:30abroad. We must
00:09:34always express our civic stands, regardless the situation in the
00:09:37world or in our country. But right now, in 2026, it
00:09:41seems to me that the...
00:10:12government's actions, which I believe most of us view as positive a very
00:10:16complicated international geopolitical situation, and the Russian government
00:10:20isn't doing a bad job at all. I
00:10:24believe in French. "I want
00:10:25the two nations to be friends. My wife,
00:10:28for example, is German, and I'm Russian. Why are there so many Russians
00:10:31here? 9 million Russian speakers, because our families are
00:10:35mixed. I believe we all can live in
00:10:37harmony. And these are images from
00:10:41several countries in Southeast Asia where Russian citizens have been
00:10:45gathering to vote. Several hundred people are expected to attend
00:10:49each the polling stations set up in Thailand, Indonesia, the
00:10:52Philippines and Laos. This has explained. they wanted to exercise their
00:10:56democratic rights despite being thousands of kilometers away from
00:10:59home. for me these days very
00:11:03important for our country and we uh from my
00:11:07point of view every russian citizen should
00:11:10vote for their future. i think it's really
00:11:14important to take part in this election cuz
00:11:16like uh we need to express
00:11:20our opinion and yeah
00:11:23this is really important. for as a first time like
00:11:27voting here, it is really important for Russian people
00:11:30abroad to take part in these
00:11:33elections, as it is very
00:11:37about to express fair will, a political
00:11:41will uh so that community in Russia, Russia
00:11:45people and international community would
00:11:48know our political will,
00:11:51our uh willing to participate in to...
00:12:25Despite the threat posed by Ukraine, people say they're determined that their
00:12:29voices will be heard. The head the Doniesk Republican has cast his
00:12:32vote a local polling station, noting that he met quite a few
00:12:36people who wanted to vote in their first state doomer election.
00:12:40Artisse Murab Gazdier reports on how
00:12:42the vote is being held under wartime
00:12:44conditions. Across two continents
00:12:48and 11 time zones under ceaseless threat of
00:12:51attack, Russians vote for their new part.
00:13:05In their millions, despite constant threats
00:13:09from Ukraine, threats of prosecution and
00:13:13persecution, just for booty, attacks on
00:13:17pouling stations, fakes and Ukrainian
00:13:20propaganda. Yesterday and the day before
00:13:23leaflets were dropped. by drones across most of our
00:13:26region, containing calls to block the electoral process
00:13:30and urging people not to participate in the
00:13:32elections. every day we are seeing a steady stream of two
00:13:36or three disinformation campaigns coming from the Ukrainian side,
00:13:40along with deep fakes and forged administrative documents,
00:13:44yet few are afraid, people are used to
00:13:47drones and missiles, verbal threats no
00:13:51longer carry the same weight. tell me, have you been
00:13:55intimidated? did Zelensky threaten you saying you shouldn't go to these
00:13:59elections? no way, he can't do
00:14:02anything. of course not, generally speaking it
00:14:06is very difficult to intimidate me, it's just not in my
00:14:09nature. god forbid. firstly, i don't recognize the
00:14:12landscape at all and i don't watch him on tv. as for scammers,
00:14:16they've already left me alone. we have lived too long to be
00:14:20intimidated. and that
00:14:23is my vote. of tens of millions being cast
00:14:27around the donbas an environment where people are
00:14:31actively being threatened, where electoral
00:14:34officials are receiving death threats, their families, their
00:14:38children, but with every vote cast in the don
00:14:42bass, the people the donbas show
00:14:46that those threats don't scare them, not even
00:14:50strongly worded statements and condemnation
00:14:53could stop these election. At today's meeting, the central
00:14:57electoral commission adopted resolution declaring that the organization and
00:15:01conduct of elections for deputies to the state duma the Russian Federation
00:15:05in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine are illegitimate.
00:15:09It is, of course, ironic that Ukraine forbids
00:15:12Ukrainians from voting in these Russian
00:15:15elections, because neither does it allow Ukrainians
00:15:19themselves, any elections? They're too dangerous,
00:15:23says the former president.
00:15:27Elections as such are huge risk, elections right now are a tsunami
00:15:31which could split Ukraine, again the irony,
00:15:34Ukraine professes to be fighting for freedom. and democracy,
00:15:38but says elections are too dangerous. Russia,
00:15:42which Kiv accuses of aggression and tyranny, holds elections
00:15:46even in war. He's holding elections in
00:15:49September. He needs a united society that will support his united
00:15:53Russia. Zelensky, on the other hand, doesn't need
00:15:57his society support, his term expired two years
00:16:01ago, and no one can do anything about
00:16:04it. He already controls all Ukrainian
00:16:08media, all newspapers and online publications,
00:16:11full spectrum propaganda, anyone who
00:16:15criticizes him, can be sanctioned, Ukrainian or
00:16:18otherwise, else sent a one way trip to
00:16:22the frontlines, so elections, you want elections as
00:16:26soon as ready to do it tomorrow, but if we have the war,
00:16:30it's you can't do it, what elections, how to make elections with the
00:16:349 million people who are abroad, and what to do with a...
00:16:38people who are temporary or live in
00:16:41temporary occupied territories. Europe, of course, will bend over
00:16:45backwards to accommodate Zelenski. Kaya
00:16:49Calas, the EU's diplomatic figure head, is
00:16:52never won to overthink it, simple and
00:16:56cliche is her style. Putin hasn't had
00:16:59elections or Russia hasn't had elections in 25 years.
00:17:03Zelensky is elected leader, elected in the
00:17:07free. fair elections and of course during the wartime you
00:17:10can't have elections Zelensky's corrupt ministers, his
00:17:14army heads simply don't mind, so long
00:17:18as the EU supports Zelensky, the aid money
00:17:22pours in and it can be divided up and
00:17:26shared around between friends. The only concern
00:17:30is the people of Ukraine forced brutally to
00:17:34fight a war they don't want to fight in by.
00:17:37president they don't want, blasted by
00:17:40propaganda, they don't agree with, and there's
00:17:44nothing they can do about it, but
00:17:46daydream. We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism
00:17:50that will allow Ukraine to restore a full-fledged democratic process,
00:17:54even under the conditions of a prolonged war. This is difficult. We
00:17:58must guarantee the right to vote for our military, for millions of Ukrainians
00:18:02abroad, and for those in the frontline regions. We must ensure the
00:18:06security the electoral.
00:18:41love to hear as the counting is now underway, your overall
00:18:44impression the three-day
00:18:46votes, thank you, well I'm living
00:18:50a small rural area and
00:18:53people are here actively um using their right to cast the
00:18:57ballot and it's this
00:19:01morning after church I saw the elderly ladies
00:19:05casting their votes, some them did it the very first... day, I think most the
00:19:08elderly people did it really on Friday, so seen from the perspective
00:19:12of a rural region where I am currently staying,
00:19:16things are going on, despite the many, many drone
00:19:19alerts that we had, I think yesterday we had like five
00:19:22alerts, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that some western
00:19:26countries have already said they refuse to recognize the
00:19:29results the elections even before the results have become
00:19:33made clear, what do what do you think about this overall?
00:19:39Well, it's more the same that we know from
00:19:43previous situations. I remember it's like
00:19:4650 years ago the
00:19:49then OEC observers for the
00:19:52the organization of security and cooperation in Europe,
00:19:56despite all the monitoring that they had, despite
00:20:00the very professional cooperation that we had between the Russian authorities and
00:20:04the OSE, they said, well...
00:20:07elections were neither fair nor free etc.
00:20:11so from a Russian perspective, I think over the last decades you could do
00:20:15whatever you wanted, you could work closely with the OECE, you could
00:20:19send as, you could bring in as many parliamentarians
00:20:23academics who do
00:20:27monitoring the elections, the West is not
00:20:30happy. Moscow says that um Ukraine also launched about
00:20:332,00 drones and missiles during the last day of voting, well...
00:20:37Previously Kiyev had called for the Russian people to put pressure on their
00:20:41government. Why then disrupt the elections, which could
00:20:45actually change Russian politics? Yeah, this is a good
00:20:48question, I mean there's... logic and there's no rationality, as I often
00:20:52repeat myself in that kind of attitude, this
00:20:56today's attacks, if I correctly remember it was more than
00:20:591,600 thrones, the mayor of Moscow said the
00:21:03worst we have seen so far, I think it's all
00:21:07about uh spreading fear, people should stay at
00:21:10home, people should not make use the democratic rights and
00:21:14duties also as citizens, so it's it's
00:21:18all about spreading uneas
00:21:21and as we saw in your
00:21:23reporting, it didn't materialize,
00:21:27people went nevertheless to the police stations and
00:21:31and exercised their citizens rights and
00:21:34duties, you constantly hearing how Ukraine cannot
00:21:38hold elections, Zelensky cannot hold elections because it's a time of war,
00:21:42but we've seen Russia was able to do it, might this change the
00:21:45western perspective on whether the Kiev regime can refuse to hold an election.
00:21:51"well, we know from President Trump that he has been
00:21:55pushing, do elections, go for elections, and I think there are also some descenting
00:21:58voices among the EU 27, people are not
00:22:02buying it that easily, that you cannot hold elections, there were
00:22:06elections in countries during war times, whether it's in
00:22:10middle east countries, whether it's in the US, during the civil war in
00:22:1419th century, that's what we hear even from several
00:22:17congressmen, so I think that..." Zelensky might
00:22:21have increasing problem with his argument that he can't
00:22:25do elections, because of course he
00:22:28can, it's all matter of organizing the
00:22:32registration uh because of because the many
00:22:36people that that emigrated that left Ukraine and
00:22:39that are now forced by the European Union to go back to Ukraine,
00:22:43plus of course you can vote from the Ukrainian
00:22:46consulate on wherever you are, so they they... have the
00:22:50electronic uh means, it's a matter of political
00:22:53will, and I would not exclude
00:22:56that maybe Donald Trump comes back with reminder the
00:23:00next few days and tells Zelensky, see, the Russians did the
00:23:04elections, I told you to do, please do, it could
00:23:07be, switching topics for moment now, because I
00:23:11really want to hear your thoughts on what we're seeing happen in
00:23:14Germany, the state of Mecklenburg, Western Pomerania
00:23:18also held elections today. exit polls are saying that the alternative for
00:23:22Germany opposition party is set to win, well the ruling party might not
00:23:26even get into the state parliament, what do you make of
00:23:28this? well the fringes are growing
00:23:32um and once federal in one region we
00:23:36had the far left and the other one the far right, so it's the
00:23:40fringes, this is what in
00:23:44history we called the viima situation, the fringes of
00:23:47growing, the center is weak. is eroding
00:23:51and the conservative party CDU, which
00:23:55might not even enter this one lanak as you just
00:23:59quoted, this is quite breaking news
00:24:03and I think that Chancelor
00:24:06Matz is not really
00:24:10looking for common ground within his party,
00:24:14because there are many of his party companions
00:24:17who are very unhappy with the fact that... he just is clinging to
00:24:21power um
00:24:23more elections to come and there are many people who might lose their
00:24:27mandates, their their positions, so I think
00:24:31Matz is playing uh tighter walk,
00:24:34which maybe he will not win. yeah, I think MTS said it
00:24:38himself, an absolute disaster. um, coming back to
00:24:42Russia, now well the the counting is underway, we're hoping to get a
00:24:46clearer picture of of how the votes have fallen in the coming few minutes and
00:24:50hours um, before the Russian elections, we know the United Russia
00:24:54party held over two-thirds the seats in the Russian Lower House of Parliament,
00:24:57what are your expectations from the vote at the
00:24:59moment? I don't want to do any
00:25:03predictions or crystal ball reading, but I think
00:25:07that the core electorate
00:25:11that each party is mobilizing has been mobilizing over
00:25:14the past few weeks, that this
00:25:17co-electorate will remains. so I don't
00:25:21see from my small perspective
00:25:25huge changes to happen,
00:25:26because I think each
00:25:30party managed to to mobilize its
00:25:49well Russian election. Authorities are currently counting the votes and the
00:25:53preliminary results after about 16% the ballots have been
00:25:56talleed is as follows: the ruling United
00:26:00Russia party is firmly in the lead um with
00:26:04the solid majority there, as you can see from this chart, the runner up is the
00:26:07communist party with almost 14%, and in third place is
00:26:11the liberal democratic party with a little over
00:26:159%. so that's how it's looking right now, let's get more
00:26:18details from our correspondent ala Khodriatsover, ala, good to
00:26:22see you, so we know where you are, you're at the central electoral commission in
00:26:26Moscow where the counting of votes has officially begun, tell
00:26:30us more information about the election. process
00:26:38state dumer elections have wrapped up and polling
00:26:41stations have now closed nationwide, including in
00:26:44Caliningrad uh, and well the voter turnout across the
00:26:48country reached
00:26:4956.66%. At this point in
00:26:53time 15.72% of votes have been counted and
00:26:57the the preliminary results are now in, so let me just give you a quick
00:27:01breakdown of... the five leading parties, we begin with
00:27:05the all Russian political party, United Russia, which got the most
00:27:09votes, that is 57.54%.
00:27:13Then we have the Communist Party the Russian Federation, which is
00:27:16CPRF for short, and it got
00:27:19the second highest number of votes a selection, that is
00:27:2213.84%. Then we have the Liberal Democratic Party of
00:27:26Russia or LDPR with
00:27:28over 9% of votes and the new people political...
00:27:32party uh in fourth place with over 8% of
00:27:35votes. the fifth on the list is the
00:27:39socialist political party, adjust Russia with over
00:27:425% the votes counted so far. now the
00:27:46leading three candidates for each individual constituency have now also
00:27:50been announced. importantly, there are
00:27:52225 individual constituencies in Russia
00:27:56and 16 in the Russian capital alone, one
00:27:59candidate will be elected per constituency. Now in
00:28:03casting their vote for a specific candidate to represent their area
00:28:07in
00:28:07the state Duma, Russian citizens uh chose from between around
00:28:11seven eight candidates per area, and the total number of
00:28:14candidates making the federal lists across Russia is over
00:28:181,700 people. Now some of
00:28:22those candidates making the federal lists are independent and
00:28:26importantly uh in this election, federal federal
00:28:29lists also include veterans the special. military
00:28:32operation now across the country we had more than
00:28:3690,000 polling stations open and that is of
00:28:40course over um well across three days over the past three
00:28:44days uh the total number of registered voter voters
00:28:47in Moscow is over 7 million 800,00
00:28:51people and nationwide that is over
00:28:54111 million. now in the course of this
00:28:57election people have been able to cast the vote a variety of
00:29:01different ways. is both in person and online, some
00:29:05people of course who haven't been able to vote in person, they were able
00:29:09to vote from home as well, so there were many ways for people to
00:29:13participate, and it is worth noting that almost
00:29:16400 thousand observers were present at these elections
00:29:20nationwide, and well with the polls now close and the
00:29:24preliminary results now in, we are awaiting the final
00:29:28results of this election, which will be announced by the central election
00:29:31commission by the 5th of October. Ala, thank you. Just
00:29:35give us a a broader picture of how the vote has gone over the
00:29:39past three days. We know about this unprecedented drone attack
00:29:43um on Russia by Kiev. Have there been any other provocations or
00:29:47disruptions that we know about? Well, when it comes
00:29:51to the elections themselves, they went smoothly and indeed they were held
00:29:54in full compliance with the law. We saw of course a high
00:29:58voter turnout, which is evidence of that, and there hasn't been a single.
00:30:02successful attack on the election process. there have been
00:30:06attempts however that we've seen over the past three days and we of
00:30:10course also seen continued intimidation of election commission
00:30:13members as well. and as we know or well uh today
00:30:17two people were killed in a drone attack a civilian bus in
00:30:21the Hirson region. one the victims was indeed member
00:30:25the precinct electoral commission in the Hirson region who was
00:30:29involved in uh the early conducting of
00:30:32in the conducting the early voting process in one of its
00:30:36electoral districts, and this was reported by the central election
00:30:40commission head, Ella Pomfilova. She of course also
00:30:44spoke in regards to cyber attacks, that is over
00:30:47100 million uh dangers that were thorted over the past three
00:30:51days.
00:30:55Over the past period, more than waves of dedos attacks were recorded
00:30:59against.