Russia is not a democracy. However, Russia does have elections – many of them, in fact.

From September 18-20, Russian voters will elect their national parliamentary representatives (to the Russian State Duma), as well as 11 governors, deputies to 39 regional assemblies, and deputies to other lower-level representative bodies.

The elections will be the first parliamentary elections since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, this will not be a barometer of public opinion about the war, the state of the Russian economy, or, well, anything.

Russians have many reasons to be disenchanted with President Vladimir Putin’s regime. The war is now in its fifth year, with an estimated 1.4 million battlefield casualties (including 450,000 deaths). Some 30,000 Russian soldiers are either being killed or injured a month. Ukraine is also increasingly bringing the war home to Russians with frequent drone attacks.

Yet, these elections will be carefully stage-managed to guarantee a favourable result – and a continued strong mandate – for Putin’s party.

Elections under dictatorship

Most modern dictatorships are not run by decree; they hold nominally multiparty elections in an effort to legitimise their systems as democratic and consensual. This is called “electoral authoritarianism”. Today, it is the most common form of authoritarian government in the world.

These elections perform a variety of functions for authoritarian regimes. In Russia, they help the Putin........

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