‘Foreign agents’ planning to interfere with Russia’s 2026 elections, warns State Duma commission head

The chairman of the State Duma Commission on Foreign Interference has accused “foreign agents” and those in “anti-Russian émigré circles” of plotting to sabotage the country’s parliamentary elections next year. 

Vasily Piskaryov said that a concerted campaign was underway aimed not only at “discrediting” the electoral lists of the ruling United Russia party, but also targeting “candidates who took part in the Special Military Operation”, using the official term used in Russia to describe the war in Ukraine. 

Piskaryov cited a resolution passed by the Russian Antiwar Committee at the end of its conference in Brussels on Tuesday to back up his claims. The Committee, which coordinates opposition to the Kremlin's war in Ukraine, lambasted next year’s ballot as “pseudo elections” that it said were conducted in the interests of “the usurpers who have seized power in Russia”. 

The resolution also made clear that Russian military personnel who had “committed crimes must face justice” and “must not be rewarded with leadership positions or parliamentary mandates”. 

Arguing that such anti-war Russians were operating in the interests of “their Western curators”, Piskaryov went on to brand such individuals as competing among themselves to be “the most vile and inventive in defaming their homeland”. 

Moscow has long sought to portray opposition to the war in Ukraine as an unpatriotic act, and has introduced a slew of laws in recent times aimed at stifling all forms of opposition to it. Next year’s parliamentary elections in Russia are due to take place before 20 September 2026.