The vote has started in Russia, spanning September 6 through September 8, with residents in 21 regions facing direct governor elections. In addition, deputies for regional legislatures and vacancies in the State Duma will be decided in 13 regions. The official information and schedule come from the Central Election Commission, which oversees the process and provides updates as ballots are cast and results are tabulated across the country. For voters and observers in Canada, the United States, and other parts of the world, this three day period marks a concentrated phase of political decision making, reflecting how Russia structures its regional and national leadership contests and the mechanics it uses to manage a broad, geographically diverse electorate.
Across the nation, nearly 4,000 election activities are planned over the three days in 83 regions. A notable element is the remote electronic voting system, or REV, which will be available in 25 constituent entities. In a number of regions, including Altai Territory, Kostroma, Smolensk, Komi, Mari El, and Chechnya, REV will be used for the first time, highlighting Russia’s ongoing experimentation with digital voting methods. The Central Election Commission reports that about 920,000 eligible Russians have submitted applications to participate in REV, signaling a significant interest in this voting format, alongside traditional in-person ballots. For observers and analysts in North America, this combination of electronic and physical voting channels is an important case study in how large federations balance accessibility, security, and public trust during nationwide elections.
In Moscow, the electoral agenda includes the elections for deputies of the City Duma of the eighth convocation, alongside municipal deputies for the TiNAO and Kurkino districts. A total of 1,440 ballot boxes will be opened within the capital to accommodate voters, with 389 candidates nominated for the Moscow City Duma elections and 281 of them registered. In the TiNAO and Kurkino districts, 543 candidates were put forward for local self-government seats, with 427 receiving registration. This multipart, city-scale voting phase provides a close-up view of urban governance contests within a major Russian metropolis, illustrating how municipal representation interacts with regional authority, and how residents engage with local decision-making processes during a broader electoral window. The setup underscores the logistical scale required to run elections in a megacity and offers concrete data points for comparative discussions on turnout, candidate pools, and ballot distribution across districts.
Earlier, the European Parliament established federal and regional situational centers to monitor the electoral environment, complementing national efforts with external observation and real-time analysis. These centers serve as hubs for tracking developments such as voter access, incident reporting, adherence to ballots and timelines, and the overall transparency of the process. For international audiences tracking elections from Canada or the United States, such coordination illustrates how cross-border observers assess the integrity of voting systems and the consistency of rules across different jurisdictions, providing additional context for evaluating similar processes within their own regions and offering a framework for understanding how multi-layered elections are managed in large federations.