A new Russian House of Commons will be elected from Friday to Sunday.

From the Kremlin's point of view, however, the Duma should not be too new.

The power party United Russia, which has held a three-quarters majority of the 450 seats since 2016, is supposed to maintain its position vis-à-vis the communists and two other parties.

But their polls have dropped sharply, to 25 to 30 percent.

United Russia has not nominated candidates in some constituencies, allegedly supporting independent celebrities.

Friedrich Schmidt

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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The Central Election Commission asserts that the competition is high and praises their elections.

Dozens of opposition politicians and activists fled into exile.

In the campaign against fellow campaigners of the imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalnyj, numerous Russians were banned from running.

On Wednesday, Navalnyj's people were still able to publish recommendations for 225 Duma constituencies and for elections to be held in 39 regions at the same time.

“Smart voting” is the name of their system, which aims to determine the most promising candidates against United Russia.

The majority are those of the communists.

Putin is promoting voting

“Clever voting” wants to prevent the protest votes from splintering and throw sand into the power transmission. This was achieved in the run-up to the election: the rulers also excluded communists from running. The party had already agitated against Vladimir Putin's constitutional reform, which enables him to remain president until 2036, and is currently campaigning for opposed independent journalists. A success in the elections could reinforce the trend for the party to become a real opposition force again, as it used to be.

Accordingly, negative advertising is used against candidates of the communists, "black PR" like the advocacy of a man who has held two young women prisoner for years. In addition, “doppelgangers”, candidates of the same name who are supposed to cost votes. The best-known victim of this practice is Boris Vishnevsky, who runs for the Yabloko party in elections to the regional parliament of Saint Petersburg: you can see him and two other Boris Vishnevsky who resemble him on the election poster. He said the two had not only changed their names to match his, but grew a beard the way he wears it.

Putin called on voters to cast their votes on Thursday.

But critics see an interest of those in power in keeping the turnout low: The large number of voters who are dependent on the state vote for the party in power under pressure, which is more important when there is a low turnout.

In this sense, automated internet commentators (bots) call for a boycott, for example under contributions to “smart voting”.

Traces of Navalnyj are to be erased

On the other hand, it was noticeable that the option of electronic voting, which was granted in seven regions (including Sevastopol in the annexed Crimea and the south-west Russian region of Rostov, where hundreds of thousands of naturalized eastern Ukrainians are to vote) is being advertised with a competition. The online voting raises particular questions. But many see "no more elections in Russia" like the exiled Putin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He said the results were "checked by hand".