Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
As Russia’s three-day election drew to a close on Sunday, a very different kind of alert was missing across the capital region during an unprecedented overnight strike.
The final day of Russia’s three-day State Duma election coincided with a mass Ukrainian drone strike on Russia that Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described as “unprecedented.”
Yet in Moscow Oblast, air raid sirens and SMS warnings were not activated during the strike.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, writes in its September 20 assessment that “Russian authorities appear to have prioritized achieving a high voter turnout at the Duma elections over public safety.”
Sobyanin said more than 1,600 drones had been intercepted, 450 of them heading for the capital. At least three people were killed across the Moscow region, a major oil refinery facility was damaged, and a drone struck a 21-story residential building, forcing the evacuation of some 400 people.
Mobile service in the area was restricted, a countermeasure Russian authorities routinely use during Ukrainian strikes, but the public warning system was not.
Comments closed on the governor’s channel
According to ISW, some residents complained on the Telegram channel of Moscow Oblast Governor Andrey Vorobyov before the channel closed comments.
The same assessment cites a prominent Kremlin-affiliated Russian military blogger who said the official response “undermine[s] the public’s trust in Russian authorities” and dismissed the mobile service restrictions as measures that do “not really help.”
A tightly managed vote
Voting ran from September 18 through September 20. Ukrainska Pravda reported Central Election Commission preliminary figures putting United Russia at 57.54 percent with 13.88 percent of ballots counted.
Turnout at the close of voting was reported at 56.66 percent.
ISW notes that United Russia received 49.82 percent in the 2021 Duma elections, so the initial 2026 result “represent[s] a minor increase for United Russia.”
