There are only three months left until the State Duma elections — the first parliamentary elections to take place during Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. The Anti-Corruption Foundation’s Polls & Surveys team has been closely tracking how Russians’ attitudes toward political parties are changing.

Russian voters know perfectly well which party does not represent their interests and which party has no intention of improving their lives. Yes, we are talking about Putin’s party, United Russia. It is the only party whose support has shifted significantly in our polling, losing nearly a third of its voters in just six months. In October 2025, 23% of respondents said they were prepared to vote for United Russia. By April 2026, that number had fallen to just 16%.

At the same time, United Russia has firmly secured first place in the negative rankings: it is the party voters are least willing to support under any circumstances.

So what is the Kremlin planning to do about it? How can it deliver the desired result for a ruling party that is steadily losing public support?

The answer is a well-known political strategy known as “drying out” the election. The goal is simple: make the campaign invisible, keep voters disengaged, and convince people there is no point in showing up to vote and using the election as an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction.

So far, it must be said, the Kremlin’s political strategists have had some success. Today, only about a quarter of Russian voters are certain that elections are coming soon. And the decline in United Russia’s support is not translating into gains for other parties. Instead, it is producing more undecided voters.

The consequences of decades of political stagnation are becoming clear. Russians do not want to support the ruling party, but they also have little faith in the alternatives. As a result, many may simply choose to stay home. If that happens, the Kremlin’s strategy will have worked perfectly. Its loyal voters will turn out, while everyone else remains on the sidelines. Thus, Putin’s political strategists will be perfectly satisfied.

But the polling data we have presented can also be viewed in a more optimistic way.

The vast majority of Russians are not yet paying attention to the election and have not decided how they will vote. That means there is still a room for a real political campaign. These voters can be reached, persuaded, and mobilized. They can still be convinced to participate in a campaign against United Russia.