Fake 'elections' to an illegitimate parliament - PACE Platform for Dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces

Statement issued on 18 September 2026, the first day of voting, by PACE's Platform for Dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces. It says the State Duma elections would not meet international democratic standards and their outcome could not be regarded as a genuine expression of the will of the Russian people, so the incoming Duma must not be recognised as democratically elected. It calls voting in the occupied Ukrainian territories a flagrant violation of international law without legitimacy or legal effect; cites the imprisonment and exile of opposition figures, blocked media, the misuse of 'foreign agent', 'extremist' and 'undesirable' labels and Yabloko's exclusion; and notes that Russia invited neither the OSCE nor independent civil society to observe and that concerns remain about the transparency of electronic voting on state-controlled infrastructure.