Russians Abroad Have Turned Their Backs On Putin's Party

"United Russia" received 2.8% of the vote from Russians living abroad.

Two independent exit polls on the Russian State Duma elections revealed a sharp discrepancy between the votes cast by Russians abroad and the official results within Russia, according to Euronews (translation by the Charter97.org website).

According to data from the “Voting Abroad” project, which analyzed the opinions of nearly 15,700 people at 27 polling stations in 22 countries, the “New People” party took first place with 43% of the vote. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) received 18.3%, while “United Russia” received only 5.5%.

An even more striking result was shown by the exit poll conducted by the “Vesna” movement and the “Progress” project. “New People” received 47.3%, the Communists 19.2%, and Putin’s party just 2.8%. “New People” took first place at each of the 18 polling stations covered by this survey.

Inside Russia, the official results look completely different. The Central Election Commission reported nearly 58% of the vote for “United Russia,” about 14% for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), nearly 9% for the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), and less than 8% for “New People.”

“The contrast is truly striking,” Ivan Zhdanov , director of the “Progress” project , told Euronews. According to him, the results of the overseas vote “shatter the image of supposedly existing support for the authorities.”

Many Russians who left after the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine oppose the war. At the same time, the only openly anti-war party, “Yabloko,” was not allowed to participate in the election. According to exit poll organizers, some of these voters cast their ballots for “New People.”

This year, Russians abroad were also only able to vote for party lists. The option to select candidates in single-member districts was revoked for them following changes in the law. A total of about 1.8 million Russians were eligible to vote abroad.

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