On Sunday, the ruling United Russia party will win a commanding majority in Russia’s Parliament. This is not in doubt. Five weeks before the vote, the country’s Supreme Court struck Yabloko, the only antiwar party, from the ballot, chiefly for alleged copyright violations during the campaign. Even in such a rubber-stamped and stage-managed affair as a Russian election, the Kremlin is clearly taking no chances.
This is, after all, the first parliamentary vote since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In the intervening years, President Vladimir Putin has outlawed opposition, crushed dissent and forced countless citizens into exile. For the elite, it has been a rude shock. It had lost its capacity to influence politics long before 2022, to be sure. But it still had room to maneuver, the means to amass wealth and, crucially, the freedom to leave. Now, that room has all but disappeared. Mr. Putin is in total control.
