What’s Putin’s Secret Post-Election Strategy To Test NATO?

The 2026 Russian legislative election to select all 450 seats of the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) ended on 20 September with President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party securing 57.83% of the vote. Given the State apparatus to ensure a positive result for Putin, the number might look on the lower side than many would expect, but it translates into a record-breaking 355 out of 450 seats in the Duma in an election that was framed largely as a referendum on Russia’s ‘Special Military Operation’ in Ukraine.…