
Common ground and differences in coverage across the media analysed.
The United Russia party, which supports Vladimir Putin, is reported to be the winner of the Russian legislative elections, with a score of around 57% according to the partial results released by the Central Election Commission, compared to about 49.4% in the initial exit poll by the state-run VCIOM institute.
On the last day of voting, Ukraine carried out what Russian authorities describe as the largest drone attack ever launched against its territory, with over 1,600 drones intercepted, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, including about 450 targeting the capital.
Part of the coverage reiterates the Russian authorities' statement that the attack aimed to disrupt the election and failed to do so, while Ukrainian coverage and part of the allied press present the strike as having hit oil and logistical infrastructure supporting the Russian war effort.
Coverage aligned with this reading
Coverage that diverges
Russian coverage highlights increased participation and a result consistent with previous elections, while several other countries point out the exclusion of the only party openly opposed to the war, Yabloko, and the absence of independent observers as signs of a vote without real competition.
Coverage aligned with this reading
Coverage that diverges
This grouping describes the publications analysed, not the position of these countries’ populations or of their governments.
What the coverage of each country leaves aside, while others put it forward.
Russia
Ukraine
Preview: 3 of 27 media perspectives. Syntheses of the media analysed — not direct quotations. Method & limitations
Brasília is dissociating the score claimed by United Russia from the validity of an election without real opposition, held on the day Ukraine struck Moscow with over a thousand drones.
3 sources · View sources
Moscow claims a double victory, that of a united Russia at the polls and that of its air defense, presented as proof that the Ukrainian attack aimed at "disrupting" the vote has failed.
6 sources · View sources
Stockholm is measuring an attack that eclipses the ballot box: the Swedish press is detailing the extent of the Ukrainian raid on Moscow, its refineries on fire and its dead, more than the announced victory of Vladimir Putin's party.
5 sources · View sources
DOMINANT ANGLE
Brasília is dissociating the score claimed by United Russia from the validity of an election without real opposition, held on the day Ukraine struck Moscow with over a thousand drones.
ANALYSIS
Brasília, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Moscow claims a double victory, that of a united Russia at the polls and that of its air defense, presented as proof that the Ukrainian attack aimed at "disrupting" the vote has failed.
ANALYSIS
Moscow, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Stockholm is measuring an attack that eclipses the ballot box: the Swedish press is detailing the extent of the Ukrainian raid on Moscow, its refineries on fire and its dead, more than the announced victory of Vladimir Putin's party.
ANALYSIS
Stockholm, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Ankara is first taking note of the unprecedented scale of the Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, which occurred on the same day as the Russian legislative election, more so than the announced victory of United Russia.
ANALYSIS
Ankara, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Kyiv claims to have dealt the most severe blow ever to Russia's oil industry, including a ballistic Pelican missile, on the same day the Russian authorities held an election with no real opposition.
ANALYSIS
Kyiv, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Buenos Aires is dissecting an election without real opposition, held at the very moment Kyiv was striking Moscow with drones
ANALYSIS
Buenos Aires, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Canberra is primarily concerned about the fear of escalation that Vladimir Putin's electoral victory would unleash, rather than the outcome of the election itself.
ANALYSIS
Canberra, Monday, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Dhaka is mainly concerned about the oil shock: the Ukrainian strike on the Moscow refinery, combined with an opposition-free vote, revives the fear of a surge in fuel prices that is already spreading beyond Russian borders.
ANALYSIS
Dhaka, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Brussels is more focused on the lack of suspense in the Russian vote than its outcome, just hours from the largest Ukrainian drone attack ever recorded.
ANALYSIS
Brussels, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Ottawa is questioning the legitimacy of an election where most anti-war candidates were excluded from the ballot, while Kyiv struck Moscow with over 1,000 drones on the same day as the vote.
ANALYSIS
Ottawa, Monday, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Santiago is gauging the unprecedented scale of the Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, which occurred on the same day that Vladimir Putin's party secured victory in the Russian legislative elections.
ANALYSIS
Santiago, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Bogotá is deciphering an unsurprising election: United Russia wins with more than 57% of the vote, while the only anti-war faction, Yabloko, had been ruled out of the running by the Supreme Court a few weeks earlier.
ANALYSIS
Bogotá, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Berlin denounces a "Scheinwahl" without real opposition, where the 57.5% obtained by United Russia primarily serves to confirm Vladimir Putin's war course, the Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow having only, according to the German press, highlighted the absence of any democratic choice.
ANALYSIS
Berlin, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Tallinn deems the Russian vote illegitimate: Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna speaks of a "political performance" orchestrated by Vladimir Putin, as Russians vote at his embassy at the very moment of the largest drone attack on Moscow.
ANALYSIS
Tallinn, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Helsinki is dissecting a locked-in election, where the announced victory of United Russia coincides with the largest Ukrainian drone attack and where a Russian diplomatic note aiming to ban demonstrations in front of its embassy is being ignored by the Finnish police.
ANALYSIS
Helsinki, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Paris is deciphering an unsurprising election where the wave of Ukrainian drones over Moscow carries more weight than the score of United Russia
ANALYSIS
Paris, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Budapest is dissecting a Russian election without real opposition, totally eclipsed on the last day of voting by the largest Ukrainian drone attack ever launched on Moscow.
ANALYSIS
Budapest, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Israel gauges the electoral victory of United Russia in light of the escalation promised by Vladimir Putin, between increased mobilization, threat to NATO, and decline of Russian influence in Syria in the face of the United States.
ANALYSIS
Jérusalem, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
New Delhi views the strike on the Moscow refinery more as an additional risk factor for its own Russian crude purchases, under the US threat of a 100 percent tariff.
ANALYSIS
New Delhi, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Rome sees the United Russia party's victory as an election without real opposition, marred by over a thousand cyberattacks and overshadowed by the largest-ever drone attack by Ukraine on Moscow.
ANALYSIS
Rome, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Seoul sees in this unprecedented drone strike a demonstration of offensive power that redraws the balance of power around the Russian vote, rather than a debate on the legitimacy of the vote.
ANALYSIS
Seoul, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Lima first notes a vote without real opposition, marred by irregularities in the electronic voting, held on the same day as the largest drone attack by Ukraine ever recorded against Russia.
ANALYSIS
Lima, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Islamabad is particularly mindful of the energy cost of the drone attack on Moscow — a refinery was hit, leading to fuel shortages — more so than the unsurprising outcome of the Russian vote.
ANALYSIS
Islamabad, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Lisbon retains the accusation of hostility that the Russian embassy addresses to the Portuguese authorities, limiting the voting of its nationals to a single office, before following the election that gives United Russia the winner and the attack of Ukrainian drones on Moscow.
ANALYSIS
Lisbon, Monday, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
London denounces a locked-in vote, where the drone attack on Moscow counts for less than the total absence of real opposition on the ballots.
ANALYSIS
London, 21 September 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
The United States distinguishes between an intensifying war and an election it refuses to validate: on one hand, strengthened military support to Kyiv, and on the other, denunciation of a Russian vote without opposition, held even in the annexed territories.
ANALYSIS
Washington, September 21, 2026.
DOMINANT ANGLE
Pretoria sees the Russian vote as a demonstration of strength without real opposition, marred by the largest drone attack by Ukrainians ever launched on Moscow.
ANALYSIS
Pretoria, September 21, 2026.
Explore every perspective on this subject across 27 countries.
Compare viewpoints and see where they diverge.
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gap
Between the VCIOM exit poll, which credited United Russia with 49.4% of the vote, and the partial results from the Central Electoral Commission, which rose to 57.87% after 87.9% of the ballots were counted, the gap shown for Vladimir Putin's party raises questions. In Tallinn as in Brussels, officials are contesting the legitimacy of the election, while Western intelligence services are mentioning a possible additional Russian mobilization after the vote.
The results remain partial: the Central Election Commission continues to update United Russia's score as ballots are counted.
The VCIOM exit poll, a state-run institute, credited United Russia with 49.4% of the vote on Sunday evening. The next day, after 87.9% of the ballots were counted, the Central Election Commission announced 57.87%, according to the Sputnik agency. In Chile, La Tercera notes a similar discrepancy for electronic voting only, where United Russia is capped at 49.06%, compared to 57.31% for all ballots.
« More than elections, I would talk about special electoral operations. »
The Hungarian website 444 reports a leak from July, which states that the presidential administration initially aimed for 55% of the vote for United Russia, before lowering this target to 45%, so that the result would not visibly deviate too much from the real mood of Russian society.
Opponent Ilya Yashin, who was imprisoned from 2022 to 2024 and is the founder of the Solidarnost movement, refuses to call the vote an election, according to La Repubblica, which quotes him the day after the vote.
The Ukrainian military claims to have hit the Gazprom Neft refinery in Kapotnia, about 15 kilometers from the Kremlin, damaging the AVT-6 distillation unit. According to Ukrinform, SBU Alpha drones allegedly traveled over 500 kilometers to penetrate Russian air defense.
On social media, Volodymyr Zelensky lists the arsenal used that night: FP-1, RZ-100, MICH-2000, Palianytsia, Vendetta, Liutyi, Bars, Flamingo, Sichnevyi, and the Pelican ballistic missile, report Ukrinform and Kyiv Post.
In Chile, La Tercera reports that manufacturer Fire Point denies the missile could have reached Moscow, a direct challenge to the Ukrainian presidential claim on this specific point.
Strikes on energy infrastructure continue despite the announcement, a week earlier, by Donald Trump of an agreement between Kyiv and Moscow to stop targeting each other's energy infrastructure, report Business Recorder and The Daily Star.
In Estonia, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna denounces a vote that is neither free nor fair, citing the absence of independent observers and the exclusion of candidates deemed unacceptable by the authorities, according to ERR News.
« This political performance orchestrated by Putin bears no resemblance to free elections. »
Handelsblatt reports that the European Union describes the holding of the vote in the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, as well as in Crimea, as a blatant violation of international law. Kyiv denounces a vote held under the threat of guns and refuses to recognize the result.
The vote also took place at Russian diplomatic missions abroad. In Helsinki, the police authorized a gathering of about forty people in front of the embassy despite a Russian note requesting a ban on demonstrations, according to YLE News. In Lisbon, the embassy limited the voting of Russians in Portugal to a single polling station, citing a reduction in staff that it attributes to a hostile attitude by the Portuguese authorities, according to the Observador.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, citing Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian intelligence expects the Kremlin to mobilize up to 300,000 additional soldiers once the vote is completed, in an attempt to unlock the Donbass front or open a new front in northern Ukraine.
« This strike is a spectacular display of force that ruined Putin's day. »
Guardian Australia reports that intelligence chiefs from the Baltic countries fear that Moscow is seeking to test NATO's military resolve, following a series of recent incidents: a drone rigged on a cargo plane at Leipzig airport, a Russian frigate firing flares at a Danish military helicopter, and a drone shot down by Alliance fighters over Lithuania.
The Jerusalem Post, citing Western intelligence sources relayed by The Telegraph, estimates the number of Russian deaths since the start of the conflict at 500,000, without this cost seeming to change the Kremlin's strategy.
In South Africa, SABC News relays the Kremlin's response to these warnings: spokesman Dmitri Peskov accuses European governments of portraying Russia as an external enemy to justify increased military spending, an argument that echoes the speech on the state of the Union by Ursula von der Leyen, citing cyberattacks, sabotage, fires, and drones as evidence of Russian hybrid threats.
The only party to be openly anti-war, it was excluded from the ballot by the Russian Supreme Court before the vote.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it wants to intensify its strikes on Kyiv in response.
The vote was also held in the annexed areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and in Crimea.
He claims to have targeted the Russian "war machine" with Flamingo and Pelican missiles.