⚡️🇷🇺🇺🇦 — Russian authorities reported attacks on the country's voting systems and communication lines on the second day of a tightly controlled three-day parliamentary election, with Moscow's electronic voting system hit by a powerful cyberattack overnight between Friday and Saturday that has continued since, Interfax reported. "The Moscow system was under a very powerful attack, literally non-stop, all night long," Central Election Commission head Ella Pamfilova told reporters on Saturday morning, describing the assault as ongoing, large-scale and intense and currently targeting Moscow. She said the electronic voting system is still operating normally and gave no details on the nature of the attack or on who was responsible — Al Jazeera / AFP / Reuters.
➡️ The first State Duma election since Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine will decide all 450 seats in the lower house and runs until 18:00 GMT on Sunday; the governing pro-Putin United Russia party is widely expected to retain its dominance. Nationwide turnout as of 14:00 local time on Saturday (11:00 GMT) stood at 32.58%, according to CEC data cited by state media.
➡️ Most antiwar candidates were excluded from the ballot before voting across Russia's 11 time zones got under way, after the Supreme Court ruled last month that the liberal Yabloko party, which wants a ceasefire in Ukraine, had breached electoral rules — a finding the party denies.
➡️ Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Friday of trying to "hinder" the vote, an accusation Kyiv has not answered; Ukraine has called the election farcical. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told TASS that Russians are showing active participation despite physical threats and cyber challenges, saying the turnout demonstrates a united response to "the war declared against Russia and its people."
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