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Inside Russia's 2026 parliamentary election: Banned opposition, rigging, and war
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Inside Russia's 2026 parliamentary election: Banned opposition, rigging, and war

by Oleg Sukhov

A parliamentary election kicked off in Russia on Sept. 18 in what is expected to be a rubber-stamp ritual intended to legitimize President Vladimir Putin's rule. The election will be held over several days and will be completed on Sept. 20. The voting is taking place amid growing frustration among Russians with the war as its costs mount, and Ukraine intensifies drone strikes on Russian territory. However, there is little opportunity for voters to express their discontent since anti-war parti

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Investigation: Western machinery at the heart of Russian arms producers like Kalashnikov

Key findings: * Leaked documents reveal over 50 Russian defense companies operating Western industrial high-precision machinery — produced by Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden — to manufacture weapons used against Ukraine. * Their machinery serving arms production was maintained by the Russian firm Galika-Service over the years of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. * Russia-based Galika-Service is part of the larger Galika group, built around the Swiss company Galika AG. The group’s cen

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The Kyiv Independent’s coverage of news on Russia. Spanning eleven time zones across Eastern Europe and Asia, Russia has an estimated population of 146 million people. Russia’s capital city is Moscow, which is home to almost one in 10 Russians. Russia’s official currency is the Russian Ruble.

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All EU sanctions linked to Russia's war may expire as France, Slovakia seek to delist oligarchs

All EU sanctions linked to Russia's war may expire as France, Slovakia seek to delist oligarchs

All of the EU's 3,000 sanctions against individuals helping Russia's war effort could be extinguished overnight if Brussels, Paris, and Azerbaijan fail to find a compromise by Sept. 21, EU diplomats told the Kyiv Independent. The EU is set to renew the sanctions against Russia-linked individuals on Sept. 21. The package accounts for about half of the EU's total sanctions listings. Given that Russia has not changed its behavior towards Ukraine since 2022, the vote to renew sanctions against tho

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