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Politics561 outlets ran this4 min read

Russia holds parliamentary elections amid Ukraine war

Voting begins across the country for all 450 seats in the State Duma.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
Russia holds parliamentary elections amid Ukraine war

What this story says

  • Polls have opened in Russia's Far East for a three-day parliamentary election.
  • This is the first parliamentary vote since the start of the war in Ukraine.
  • President Vladimir Putin's party is widely expected to win the election.
  • Voting is also occurring in occupied territories of eastern Ukraine.

Who covered it

Left 31%(68)Centre 38%(85)Right 31%(69)

Percentages are shares of the 222 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 339 of the 561 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

42/100

Craft

55/100

Hype

41/100

561 sources · methodology

Missing from the left

Only 68 of the 222 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

A reader who follows the left would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

Russia has begun a three-day parliamentary election, with polls opening in the Far East. The vote will determine all 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. This election is the first parliamentary vote to take place since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Voting is also being conducted in occupied territories of eastern Ukraine.

Disagreement on election timing

While most reports state that voting began on Friday, 18 September 2026, one outlet indicates a different start date. Vedomosti.ru reports that the election will last for three days, from 18 to 20 September. Life.ru states that polling stations in the Far East opened at 11 p.m. Moscow time on 17 September, with electoral commissions beginning their work on the morning of 18 September. Interfax.ru and vz.ru also note that the first polling stations opened on Kamchatka and Chukotka.

Omissions in coverage

None of the right-rated reports mention the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace or the analysis provided by Tatiana Stanovaïa. The left-rated report from La Presse included this information.

Tags:#Russia#Elections#UkraineWar#StateDuma#Politics

Coverage settled. We checked this 11 times and stopped on 23 Sept 2026, 07:45. The figures above are what it finished at.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

68 rated outlets

  • The left‑rated outlets all reported that polling stations opened on Friday morning in Russia’s Far East, beginning a three‑day vote for the 450‑seat State Duma, the first such election since the 2022 invasion. La Presse, Dnevni list Danas and the digests noted United Russia’s expected dominance and the war in Ukraine as the election’s backdrop.
  • La Presse’s full report quoted a 20‑year‑old voter named Apostol, a Carnegie Russia Eurasia analyst, Tatiana Stanovaïa, and President Putin’s televised appeal urging citizens to vote in support of the war effort. No other left outlet provided named speakers; the digests merely referenced “experts” or “analysts” without identification.
  • The digests from Meduza, fakti.bg, The Independent, abc News, Stuff, Toronto Star, El Pais, HuffPost, Al Jazeera and Le Monde omitted details such as the exact list of all eleven parties on the ballot, specific vote‑count timelines, or any cost estimates for the election. None mentioned the Kremlin’s official statements beyond the general description of United Russia’s participation.

Centre

85 rated outlets

  • Washington Top News reported on the opening of polls for Russia's tightly controlled parliamentary vote, with the Kremlin expected to maintain its grip on power. The report stated that the election will determine all 450 seats in the State Duma.

Right

69 rated outlets

  • The right-rated reports focused on the commencement of voting in Russia's parliamentary election, noting it is the first since the war in Ukraine began. Multiple outlets stated that polling stations opened in the Far East and that the election will determine all 450 seats in the State Duma. President Vladimir Putin's party is widely expected to win. Times of India, Aftenposten, Le Figaro, news-pravda.com, vz.ru, and Interfax.ru all carried headlines and digests to this effect. Vz.ru mentioned that Ella Pamfilova, Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, participated in the opening of the first polling stations and that Russia's anthem was played. Interfax.ru and news-pravda.com specified that polling stations opened in Kamchatka and Chukotka.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Russia holds parliamentary elections amid Ukraine war?
Of the 222 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 31% are rated left, 38% are rated centre, 31% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 561. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Russia holds parliamentary elections amid Ukraine war left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 222 rated outlets on this story, 31% are rated left, 38% are rated centre, 31% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Russia holds parliamentary elections amid Ukraine war biased?
Russia holds parliamentary elections amid Ukraine war is one event reported by 561 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Russia holds parliamentary elections amid Ukraine war?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Russia holds parliamentary elections amid Ukraine war?
561 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
When did the Russian parliamentary elections begin?
Polls opened in Russia's Far East on Friday, 18 September 2026, for a three-day parliamentary election. Some reports indicate that the first electoral commissions began their work on the morning of 18 September, following an 11 p.m. Moscow time opening on 17 September.
What is being decided in these elections?
The elections will determine all 450 seats in the State Duma, which is the lower house of the Russian parliament. This is the first parliamentary election to be held since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Is President Putin's party expected to win?
Yes, President Vladimir Putin's party is widely expected to win the election and maintain its grip on power in the State Duma. The election is described as tightly controlled.

Read it at the source

611 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

73
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Centre

87
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Right

81
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Not rated

370
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How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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