Country profile
Russian Federation
Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
Europe · Eastern Europe
RU · RUS
- Capital
- Moscow
- Population
- 146,028,325
- Area
- 17,098,246 km²
- Democracy index
- 9
- Regime type
- Closed Autocracy
Events
Ballots from Russian Federation
The latest elections, referendums, and opinion polls from Russian Federation. Community totals are not official results.
Soon(1)1 published ballot
Classification
Democracy profile
The score and regime label are assigned by Porto Voto using our in-house democracy index and classification framework, not ratings from governments or external agencies.
Democracy index
9/100
Regime type
Closed Autocracy
The Russian political system has effectively completed its transition into a consolidated, closed autocracy as of April 2026. Power is heavily centralized within the executive branch, with all strategic decision making controlled by President Vladimir Putin and a tight circle of security officials, leaving the legislature and judiciary as mere administrative extensions of the Kremlin. The environment for political competition is non-existent, evidenced by the systematic dismantling of the remaining independent civil society organizations and the labeling of prominent groups, such as the International Memorial Movement, as extremist in April 2026. State control over the information space is nearly absolute, enforced through stringent wartime censorship laws and the aggressive use of anti-terrorism and extremism legislation to criminalize even mild anti-war dissent. The upcoming September 2026 State Duma elections are being prepared under conditions of extreme restriction, including the expansion of opaque electronic voting systems and the disqualification of any candidates who offer a genuine alternative to the ruling party. Furthermore, the regime has intensified transnational repression, targeting critics abroad through legal and extralegal means, while domestic monuments to victims of historical political repression are being physically removed to align with a state-mandated narrative of absolute continuity and authority.
Last evaluation:
How we classify regimes →World Factbook
Country background
A concise introduction to Russian Federation, together with notes on how power and law are organized, to put local ballots in context.
Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy emerged from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and gradually conquered and absorbed surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new ROMANOV dynasty continued this policy of expansion across Siberia to the Pacific. Under PETER I (1682-1725), hegemony was extended to the Baltic Sea and the country was renamed the Russian Empire.
During the 19th century, more territorial acquisitions were made in Europe and Asia. Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 contributed to the Revolution of 1905, which resulted in the formation of a parliament and other reforms. Devastating defeats and food shortages in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow of the ROMANOV Dynasty in 1917.
The communists under Vladimir LENIN seized power soon after and formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The brutal rule of Iosif STALIN (1928-53) strengthened communist control and Russian dominance of the Soviet Union at a cost of tens of millions of lives. After defeating Germany in World War II as part of an alliance with the US (1939-1945), the USSR expanded its territory and influence in Eastern Europe and emerged as a global power.
The USSR was the principal US adversary during the Cold War (1947-1991). The Soviet economy and society stagnated in the decades following Stalin's rule, until General Secretary Mikhail GORBACHEV (1985-91) introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to modernize communism. His initiatives inadvertently released political and economic forces that by December 1991 led to the dissolution of the USSR into Russia and 14 other independent states.
In response to the ensuing turmoil during President Boris YELTSIN's term (1991-99), Russia shifted toward a centralized authoritarian state under President Vladimir PUTIN (2000-2008, 2012-present) in which the regime seeks to legitimize its rule through managed elections, populist appeals, a foreign policy focused on enhancing the country's geopolitical influence, and commodity-based economic growth. In 2014, Russia purported to annex Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and occupied large portions of two eastern Ukrainian oblasts. In sporadic fighting over the next eight years, more than 14,000 civilians were killed or wounded as a result of the Russian invasion in eastern Ukraine.
On 24 February 2022, Russia escalated its conflict with Ukraine by invading the country on several fronts in what has become the largest conventional military attack on a sovereign state in Europe since World War II. The invasion received near-universal international condemnation, and many countries imposed sanctions on Russia and supplied humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. In September 2022, Russia unilaterally declared its annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts -- Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia -- even though none were fully under Russian control.
The annexations remain unrecognized by the international community.