In a resolution adopted on October 8 by 482 votes in favour, 41 against and 39 abstentions, MEPs rejected the Russian State Duma elections held on September 18-20, 2026 as neither free nor fair, saying the “fake” ballot was held in a climate of fear and against the backdrop of Moscow’s continued war against Ukraine. Parliament denounced electoral violations by President Vladimir Putin’s regime and the long-standing destruction of any remnants of democracy in Russia.
Parliament notes that during the ballot there were no genuine alternative candidates, no free media, no credible observers and no political freedoms, with critics of the regime imprisoned, murdered or forced into exile. MEPs also condemned the holding of the so-called elections in parts of the Russian-occupied Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, in Moldova’s Transnistrian region, and in Georgia’s Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.
The resolution refuses to recognise the Russian State Duma as the legitimate representative and legislative body of the Russian Federation, including any legal or political consequences of the elections held in occupied territories. MEPs call on all EU countries to adopt a similar non-recognition policy, refrain from any official contact with the newly constituted Duma and its members, and oppose their participation in interparliamentary assemblies. It also speaks out against the normalisation of Russia’s participation in international sporting and cultural events.
MEPs further demanded extensive new restrictive measures against individuals and entities involved in political persecution in Russia, naming judges, prosecutors, officials of the Rosfinmonitoring financial monitoring service, members of Russia’s Central Election Commission, and officials involved in organising the staged electoral processes in occupied Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. The text conditions any normalisation of EU-Russia relations on a just and lasting peace for Ukraine based on full territorial integrity and complete withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of prisoners of war, the return of forcibly deported Ukrainian children, full reparations, and accountability for crimes.