The all-but inevitable win by Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party in this week’s parliamentary and regional elections is clearly designed to signal that Putin remains firmly in control of the country.
Putin is working harder than ever to control the narrative and maintain his grip on power in the Kremlin as everyday Russians experience the effects of Russia’s unprovoked war in Ukraine. Families are grieving soldiers who died on the front lines, citizens continue to leave the country amid fears of mobilization, and Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy production have led to fuel shortages. Yet he’s willing to bet that Russians will once again robustly support his nationalist agenda – after stifling dissent with political repression and institutional engineering.
As the United States continues to explore how to bring Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine to an end, it’s important to acknowledge that Putin’s position at home is being repeatedly tested, no matter how much Moscow tries to control the story. And the extent of repression exerted on Russia’s own citizens also reflects Putin’s calculations that his personal future as Russia’s paramount leader depends on continuing his attempted conquest of Ukraine and pursuing conflict with the West.
Russians standing up against Putin’s corrupt and repressive dictatorship and his war of aggression in Ukraine need and deserve support from the United States and international community. Russia’s freedom advocates have never stopped dreaming of a more peaceful, prosperous, and democratic Russia. But their work has become increasingly more difficult as Putin’s repression has deepened and forced the most outspoken into exile or prison.
To shore up support for United Russia ahead of the upcoming elections, Putin toured seven cities across Siberia and Russia’s far eastern regions in July and August after hardly traveling outside of Moscow in the first half of 2026. This rare visibility campaign was likely spurred by growing discontent among the country’s citizens.
Public opinion in Russia is difficult to measure due to political repression, government surveillance, and a pervasive climate of fear that inhibit free expression. But monthly polls of a representative cross-section of 1,600 adults living in rural and urban settings throughout the country between January and August by the independent Yuri Levada Analytical Center documented a 10-point decrease in respondents who said “Russia is moving in the right direction” and a five-point increase among those who said Russia is on course toward a “dead end.”
A relative low point in assessing the nation’s trajectory occurred in June, when only 55% of Russian respondents answered that the country was moving “in the right direction” versus 35% who felt Russia was “on the wrong track.”
Over the summer, Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil infrastructure contributed to fuel shortages experienced acutely across its vast geography. Russia’s economy remains stagnant, and capital flight appears to be mounting. Russia’s Central Bank reported a record amount of capital – $12.2 billion – left the country from April through June via transactions that don’t belong to standard categories of foreign payments such as imports, debt repayments, and investments.
Putin isn’t blind to these mounting tensions. He took action, with harsher responses to Russians willing to voice their frustrations with the war and its impact on Russian society.
Among repressive measures that have been decades in the making, Putin’s crackdown on free flows of information not controlled by or under the influence of the state accelerated earlier this year with a crackdown on the usage of independent virtual private networks (VPNs) and popular encrypted chat apps.
These moves created additional hurdles for Russians inside the country’s borders to access news from independent Russian media outlets that have been forced into exile, as well as international news platforms. The restrictions even hindered the rising influence of Russian war bloggers who have developed sizeable followings on Telegram.
In April, the Kremlin targeted the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights organization Memorial by declaring it an “extremist” organization. The group, known especially for recording the historical memory of terror in the Soviet Union, had already seen its legal status forcibly dissolved by Russian courts in 2022. The new designation doubles down, making any communication and association with the revived iteration of Memorial established in exile radioactive. Memorial remains undeterred and continues to boldly offer support to Russians inside the country and defend their human rights.
Putin’s repression didn’t stop at the border. Stepping up his transnational repression of Russian dissidents who have fled the country, Putin signed a new package of “civil death” laws in August that deny essential registration services like renewing a passport to Russian citizens convicted of an ever-expanding list of administrative and criminal charges associated with criticizing the war, such as “discrediting Russia’s armed forces,” supporting sanctions against Russia, and violating Russia’s foreign agent law.
The Kremlin has also prevented authentic opposition candidates from running in the upcoming elections. A leading opposition and antiwar figure, Boris Nadezhdin, was forced to flee the country in July under threat of imprisonment after authorities denied registration of his candidacy. In August, Moscow annulled the registration of candidates for the federal parliamentary election representing Yabloko, a small independent opposition party that saw support increase after declaring an anti-war platform. Targeting continued with the sentencing of senior Yabloko party leader Lev Shlosberg to 11 years in prison, followed by a cascade of removals of Yabloko party candidates competing in regional elections.
The United States can amplify these dissident voices by continuing to broadcast and produce fact-based news through the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty programming and by providing funds to organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy and Freedom House that enable grantmaking, support, and a platform for independent Russian media, anticorruption efforts, and civil society groups.
The administration should also maintain, expand, and fully enforce the targeted sanctions architecture that holds Russia’s leadership accountable for perpetuating the war in Ukraine and for human rights abuses.
Putin may appear popular and confident to outside observers, but his actions reveal he closely watches any moves by his own citizens to hold him accountable. As Putin tries to prevent meaningful demonstrations of dissent, the U.S. government and broader international community can side with those who stand for freedom
