STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Russia's parliamentary election over the weekend went as expected. The ruling United Russia party is still the ruling party. Voter Vitaly Gorshkov (ph) saw the win as an endorsement of President Vladimir Putin.
VITALY GORSHKOV: (Through interpreter) He's our president and our commander in chief. And today, in a time of war, we're behind him.
INSKEEP: If Russians felt otherwise, they had no way to show that. Candidates opposed to Russia's war with Ukraine were taken off the ballot. Tatyana (ph) is a voter in Moscow who declined to give her last name out of concerns for government reprisals.
TATYANA: (Through interpreter) Unfortunately, we can't express our real views because they took away that possibility.
INSKEEP: We reached Hanna Notte, who is a Russian foreign policy expert and director of the Eurasia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. And she joins us from Berlin. Welcome.
HANNA NOTTE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK. Was this a democratic election?
NOTTE: Well, it was absolutely not a democratic election. I think the now near complete results suggest increased rigging to really produce a result for Vladimir Putin that validates support for him and support for his war against Ukraine, which are essentially unanimous today. We have reported record turnout at 59% in the Duma election. And then United Russia, which is the ruling party, acquiring its largest share of Duma seats in history. So the bottom line here is that the Kremlin had framed these elections as a test of loyalty and support for the war, and now it fabricated for itself a result that more than passes that test.
INSKEEP: And yet, even with all that you just said, the United Russia party had 58% of the vote, which doesn't really seem that impressive if you canceled out many of the opposition candidates.
NOTTE: Well, I mean, they had banned the Yabloko opposition party from running - that is true - in early August on some fabricated charges. But, you know, this 58% of the vote, it's still quite a lot higher than in previous Duma elections.
INSKEEP: Got it.
NOTTE: The Kremlin isn't quite as brazen as going for 70%, 80% of the vote because it still wants to look like this is a Democratic election. And it wants it to be internationally recognized.
INSKEEP: Does it matter that four territories in Ukraine voted in this Russian election? These, of course, are territories that are occupied by Russian troops.
NOTTE: Well, we're talking of 3.5 million voters here. And Putin had personally stressed the importance of their participation, talking about the reunification with Russia. And the Central Electoral Commission was able to conduct those elections there because it is operating under a state of emergency, so it has expanded powers. So this is important from a symbolic point of view. Now, of course, Ukraine has denounced those elections as illegal. It has called on other governments to denounce them. And the EU already issued a statement this morning saying that it won't recognize those elections or the results.
INSKEEP: Now, you clearly don't buy the numbers released by Russia about these elections. But let me ask about Vladimir Putin's popularity. It has been said over many, many years that whatever tactics Putin may use, whatever strategies he may use, however many people may oppose him, there's a reservoir of support for this president. A large part of the country supports him. Do you think that is still true?
NOTTE: I think that is still true. A large reservoir of people does support Vladimir Putin, though we've seen polling indicating that support for him has slightly declined this year. And that is because of a growing unease in Russian society with the war, the fact that it's going on in its fifth year and the fact that the war is coming home to Russians, with Ukraine's long-range strike campaign that is targeting Russian warehouses, Russian airports. So there's this growing sense in Russian society, Steve, that this war must end. And people are looking to Putin to sort of find answers, to see what he's going to decide next. And that is why it was so important for the Kremlin to produce those results in this election. And Putin had become quite involved personally in the lead-up as well to garner support.
INSKEEP: I guess we should note, more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones were launched at Russia over the weekend. Some of them hit an oil refinery, among other targets. In about 10 seconds, what do you make of that attack?
NOTTE: This is to be seen in the context of a growing escalation of the economic war that's waged on both sides. The Russians are also striking Ukraine to pummel the Ukrainians into submission, so we should expect more of that in the upcoming period.
INSKEEP: Hanna Notte's most recent book is "We Shall Outlast Them: Putin's Global Campaign To Defeat The West." Thanks.
NOTTE: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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