Kremlin Fears Anti-War Sentiment Among Russians
The Kremlin’s decision to prevent Russia’s Yabloko party, which opposes the war in Ukraine, from taking part in the State Duma elections may indicate growing concern among Russian authorities about public attitudes toward the war, according to an editorial published by The Guardian, UATV English reports.
Russia’s parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place this week. The outcome is widely expected to preserve United Russia’s majority in the State Duma. The Guardian describes Russia’s political system as “managed democracy,” in which formal elections are accompanied by repression and restrictions on political competition.
“The Kremlin’s clumsy attempts to ensure the desired result suggest growing anxiety about public sentiment and a war that is not going according to plan,” The Guardian editorial board wrote.
Last month, Russia’s Supreme Court barred Yabloko from participating in the parliamentary elections. The Guardian notes that the party has not posed a serious political challenge to the Kremlin for years: it last held seats in the State Duma in 2007, although its representatives remain active in some local and municipal bodies.
“The Kremlin is so fearful of any open expression of anti-war sentiment that even Yabloko — a weak party with no real chance of affecting the result — has been excluded,” The Guardian wrote.
According to the newspaper, barring even such a marginal political force could reflect concerns within the Kremlin about the actual level of public support for the war, which has now entered its fifth year.
The Guardian also links the situation to the increasingly tangible consequences of the war for Russia’s population. Ukrainian long-range strikes against targets inside Russia, fuel shortages, inflation and Russian military casualties are making it more difficult for the Kremlin to conceal the scale of the war from the public, the editorial argues.
The newspaper concludes that the Kremlin’s objective is not only to control the election result but also to create the appearance of broad public support for President Vladimir Putin. In The Guardian’s assessment, the greater the effort Russian authorities devote to shaping the election outcome, the more visible their concerns about genuine public sentiment become.
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17 of September 2026
