Elections in Russia are held at the federal, regional, and local levels. At the federal level, voters elect a president as head of state and choose members of the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly. The Federation Council, the upper house, is not directly elected but is composed of representatives appointed by the executive and legislative bodies of each federal subject.
Russia's electoral system formally provides for universal suffrage, multiparty competition, and periodic elections at all levels of government. However, since the early 2000s, independent observers, international monitoring organizations, and comparative democracy researchers have consistently documented the progressive erosion of competitive elections. Political opposition is suppressed through legal restrictions on candidacy, the harassment and imprisonment of opposition figures, and extensive state control over mass media. Electoral fraud has been documented in numerous elections. Political scientists classify Russia's political system as a form of competitive authoritarianism or a hybrid regime, combining formal democratic institutions with authoritarian practice.China Russia Compared wesleyan.edu July 2015
The Economist Intelligence Unit classified Russia as an authoritarian regime in its 2024 Democracy Index, and Freedom House rated it as Not Free in its 2025 Freedom in the World report, citing the absence of genuine electoral competition, pervasive state repression, and systematic fraud.
Federal structure and electoral framework
The Federal Assembly The Federal Assembly (Federalnoye Sobraniye) is bicameral, consisting of the State Duma (lower house) and the Federation Council (upper house). The State Duma has 450 members elected for five-year terms through a mixed-member majoritarian representation system. Half of the seats (225) are filled by proportional representation from party lists, with a 5 percent electoral threshold. The remaining 225 seats are contested in single-member constituencies through a first-past-the-post system.
The Federation Council is not directly elected. Each of the 89 federal subjects of Russia (including territories annexed in 2014 and 2022, which are not recognised by the international community) sends two senators to the Council: one representing the regional legislative body and one representing the regional executive, for a total of 178 senators from regional bodies. In addition, the President may appoint up to 30 additional senators as representatives of the Russian Federation, of whom up to seven may serve for life. Former presidents may also serve as life senators. The current structure of the Federation Council was established by federal law in August 2000, replacing the earlier practice under which regional governors and legislative heads sat in the Council ex officio.
Presidential elections
The President of Russia is elected in a two-round system for a six-year term, with a constitutional limit of two terms. The term was extended from four to six years by constitutional amendment in December 2008, taking effect from the 2012 election. Under the 1993 Constitution, the same person could not hold the presidency for more than two consecutive terms. The 2020 constitutional amendments modified this provision by "zeroing" all presidential terms served before the amendments entered into force, thereby allowing Vladimir Putin and former President Dmitry Medvedev to each seek up to two further terms regardless of their prior service. Under the amended constitution, presidential candidates must be at least 35 years old, have been permanently resident in Russia for at least 25 years (raised from 10 years), and must never have held foreign citizenship or a foreign residence permit.
If no candidate wins an absolute majority of votes cast in the first round, a run-off is held between the two leading candidates. Of the eight presidential elections held since 1991, only the 1996 election required a second round.
Electoral administration
Central Election Commission Federal elections are administered by the Central Election Commission (CEC; Russian: Tsentrizbirkom), established in September 1993. The CEC consists of 15 members: five appointed by the President, five by the State Duma, and five by the Federation Council. Members serve five-year terms and elect among themselves the CEC's Chair, Deputy Chair, and Secretary. The CEC is responsible for organising and overseeing federal elections, accrediting domestic and international observers, certifying election results, and maintaining voter registers.
Ella Pamfilova has served as CEC Chair since 2016. Critics and independent observers, including the Russian election monitoring organisation Golos, have documented the CEC's role in excluding opposition candidates from elections on procedural grounds and failing to investigate credible fraud allegations.
Regional and local election commissions Regional election commissions (Election Commissions of the Subjects of the Russian Federation) serve as the supreme bodies for election administration within each federal subject. Each regional commission has between 10 and 14 members: half are appointed by the regional legislature and half by the governor. The CEC must have at least one of its nominees included among the governor's appointees. In practice, since United Russia dominates most regional legislatures and gubernatorial offices, regional commissions are frequently aligned with the ruling party.
Latest elections
2024 Russian presidential election
Presidential elections were held over three days, 15 to 17 March 2024. It was the eighth presidential election in post-Soviet Russia. Vladimir Putin was declared the winner with 87.28 percent of the vote, the highest share recorded in any post-Soviet Russian presidential election, and was inaugurated for a fifth term on 7 May 2024. The official turnout figure was 77.49 percent, also described by the CEC as the highest in modern Russian history.
The other candidates on the ballot were Nikolay Kharitonov of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (4.31 percent), Vladislav Davankov of New People, and Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. All credible opposition candidates were excluded. Alexei Navalny, who had been the most prominent opposition leader, died in a Siberian penal colony in February 2024, weeks before the election, under circumstances widely attributed to Kremlin action. Boris Nadezhdin, the only explicitly anti-war candidate backed by a registered party, was disqualified by the CEC on the grounds of alleged irregularities in signature collections.
The elections were also conducted in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, drawing condemnation from Ukraine, the United States, the European Union, and 56 other countries, who declared the results in those territories invalid. The UN deputy secretary-general Rosemary DiCarlo stated that conducting elections in another state's territory without consent was "in manifest disregard for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Statistical analyses by media outlet Meduza, based on scatter plots of turnout against Putin's vote share, found patterns consistent with large-scale falsification. Meduza concluded that the 2024 election was "almost certainly the most fraudulent" in modern Russian history, with the proportion of polling stations showing statistical indicators of fraud having grown significantly compared to 2018.
European Council President Charles Michel congratulated Putin on his victory while voting was still under way, noting that there was "no opposition, no freedom, no choice."
2021 Russian legislative election
State Duma elections were held in September 2021. The government of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin prevented OSCE observers from taking part, citing COVID-19 restrictions, while critics argued the restrictions were designed to hinder independent monitoring.
Previous federal elections
2016 Russian legislative election
In 2015, the OSCE called on the Russian government to respect the work of independent election observers, following incidents in which citizen observers were beaten or harassed during regional elections.
2011 Russian legislative election
The 2011 State Duma elections were widely alleged to have been manipulated in favour of United Russia, with numerous journalists and opposition representatives reporting fraud. A study by Enikolopov et al. using a field experiment at polling stations found that the presence of independent observers correlated with an approximately 11 percentage point reduction in United Russia's vote share at those stations, suggesting systematic ballot inflation in unobserved precincts. Large protests against election fraud followed the announcement of results in December 2011.
2007 Russian legislative election
European institutional observers who monitored the December 2007 legislative elections concluded that they did not meet OSCE standards. Göran Lennmarker, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, stated that the elections "failed to meet many of the commitments and standards that we have. It was not a fair election." Luc Van den Brande, heading a Council of Europe delegation, cited the "overwhelming influence of the president's office and the president on the campaign" and the "abuse of administrative resources", and concluded that the elections could not be described as fair.
The OSCE was also prevented from sending observers to monitor the elections. In February 2008, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) announced it would not send a mission to the March 2008 presidential election, citing severe restrictions imposed on its operations by the Russian government.
2003 Russian legislative election
1999 Russian legislative election
1995 Russian legislative election
1993 Russian legislative election
Presidential elections: historical overview
Since 1991, Russia has held eight presidential elections. Boris Yeltsin won the first in 1991 and was re-elected in 1996, in the only election to proceed to a second round. Vladimir Putin won in 2000, 2004, 2012, 2018, and 2024. Dmitry Medvedev won in 2008 during the period when Putin served as prime minister. In every presidential election, the Communist Party candidate has finished second: Nikolai Ryzhkov in 1991, Gennady Zyuganov in 1996, 2000, and 2008, Nikolay Kharitonov in 2004 and 2024, and Pavel Grudinin in 2018. The only election in which a third candidate exceeded 10 percent in the first round was 1996, when Alexander Lebed received approximately 15 percent.
The duration of the presidential term was four years from 1991 until the 2008 constitutional amendment, which extended terms to six years beginning with the 2012 election. The next presidential election is scheduled for 2030.
Parliamentary elections: historical overview
Parliamentary elections have been held since 1993. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation was the largest party in the 1995 election (approximately 35 percent of the party-list vote) and the 1999 election (approximately 24 percent). United Russia, formed from a merger of Unity and Fatherland – All Russia, emerged as the dominant party from 2003 onwards, obtaining 38 percent in that year's elections and expanding its dominance in subsequent cycles. The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and A Just Russia have consistently maintained a presence as Kremlin-tolerated parties, while genuinely independent and liberal parties such as Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces were effectively marginalised from the Duma after 2003.
The electoral system in detail
State Duma elections