Circular supervision: how will the control over the elections in the State Duma be organized?

The Civic Chamber and eight political parties signed an agreement on cooperation in monitoring the elections to the State Duma. At the same time, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Just Russia and Yabloko refused to work together in this format — these political forces will send their own specialists to the polling stations. International experts will also monitor the course of the September vote: their exact number will be known before September 7, the CEC of the Russian Federation reported. Izvestia investigated how public monitoring differs from international monitoring and why representatives of unfriendly states were not invited to the elections.

What do the Civic Chamber and the parties agree on?

The agreement signed on August 4 provides for a joint discussion of control methods, including monitoring of remote electronic voting (DEG). In addition, the parties agreed to share their experience in training observers and monitor the electoral process.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Anna Selina

OP Secretary Lidia Mikheeva stressed that the parties intend to monitor strict compliance with electoral legislation, promptly exchange data on possible incidents and respond to them in a timely manner.

She added that despite the difference in the political interests of the campaigners, their common task is to protect the right of citizens to freely express their will. To do this, the Civic Chamber is ready to ensure the presence of independent observers at each polling station during all three days of voting. It is planned to scale up this practice: regional public chambers will sign similar agreements with local parties.

Voting in the elections to the State Duma and regional legislative assemblies will last from September 18 to 20, 2026. 450 deputies will be elected to the lower house of parliament: 225 from party lists and 225 from single—mandate constituencies. The CEC of the Russian Federation previously allowed lists of 11 political parties to participate in the election campaign.

Eight of them have signed a cooperation agreement with the Civic Chamber: United Russia, LDPR, New People, Greens, Communists of Russia, Russian Party of Pensioners for Social Justice, Rodina and the Party of Direct Democracy.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov

The remaining three political forces — the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Fair Russia and Yabloko — did not delegate their representatives to sign the document.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation traditionally refuses to participate in this procedure, calling such an agreement a "fiction." The party claims that observers from the Public Chamber have never intentionally recorded falsifications during the entire monitoring period. For this reason, the Communists intend to send thousands of their own supervisors to the polling stations.

Fair Russia also usually does not participate in the signing of such documents. The exception was the presidential campaign in 2024, when the party did not nominate a candidate. Yabloko joined the number of parties that rejected the agreement. This step is due to the position of the political force, which does not share the consensus on its own.

What will observers from other countries do?

In addition to representatives of the Public Chamber and political parties, international observers will monitor the elections to the State Duma. The Central Election Commission has sent invitations to 12 organizations and 103 states, the agency said. Currently, the number of countries that have confirmed their participation is changing daily. "We expect to receive most of the responses by the end of August, and then a real picture will be formed in terms of the number and geographical representation of observers," the Central Election Commission told Izvestia. The final data on the accreditation of foreign experts will be available by September 7.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov

International observers give an external assessment of the openness and transparency of the electoral process, which directly affects its perception abroad, Artur Zabbarov, Deputy head of the Department of Political Projects at the Polylog Group, Candidate of Political Sciences, explained to Izvestia. At the same time, representatives of the Public Chamber rely on the norms of national law, monitoring the observance of electoral procedures and the protection of citizens' rights.

Invitations were not sent to the electoral authorities of unfriendly countries, including due to the absence of independent election commissions in many of them — often elections are conducted there by units of the Ministries of Internal Affairs or justice, the CEC said. For example, in Germany, the process is administered by a structure associated with the Federal Ministry of the Interior, in Denmark, the Ministry of the Interior and Health plays a key role, and in Belgium and Luxembourg, a significant part of similar functions are also assigned to relevant ministries.

At the same time, the presence or absence of an independent Central Election Commission does not in itself determine the degree of freedom and transparency of voting. The openness of the vote count, the work of observers, freedom of the media and the independence of the judicial system are much more important.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Izvestia Archive

The CEC's decision not to invite observers from unfriendly states is due to the current geopolitical situation, Anton Palyulin, Deputy Secretary General of the Party of Direct Democracy and owner of the law firm Palyulin and Partners, told Izvestia. In his opinion, delegations from countries that call the Russian elections illegitimate in advance could come with ready-made reports and use the podium for political statements.

As a result, representatives of Asian, African and Latin American states will replace the Western missions in the September elections. Missions from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly are likely to form the basis of international organizations.