The Telegraph: Putin's Paranoia Has Escalated
- 9.08.2026, 10:56
The Russian dictator is getting nervous ahead of the election.
“Russia, Putin, Victory”—that was the rallying cry, repeated five times by State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, as he closed the parliament’s final session before the September elections. The assembled deputies opted for polite applause, but Volodin was soon rewarded for his enthusiasm with a medal from Kremlin dictator Putin, recognizing his “valiant work.”
This wasn’t even the most generous display of political sycophancy of the week. Just two days later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared in state media that Putin’s rise to power was a sign that his country was “blessed by God,” writes The Telegraph.
However, the jingoistic theatrical displays—which took place a month and a half before Russia’s first nationwide parliamentary elections since the start of its war against Ukraine—mask a more alarming reality, journalists say. Against a backdrop of growing public discontent over Ukraine’s strikes deep into Russia, economic instability, a raging fuel crisis, and rumors of mobilization, the Kremlin has moved to crack down on dissenting voices more harshly than ever before.
Even its so-called “systemic opposition”— — nominally rival parties that have long been used to create the illusion of pluralism while acting in the regime’s interests — has been gutted, stripped of its candidates, or barred from participating.
What’s Happening Ahead of the Elections
Boris Nadezhdin, one of the country’s most prominent anti-war politicians, was forced to flee the country after a decades-long career within the system. “Yabloko”—the only party participating in the elections that has taken an openly anti-war stance—will, by all accounts, be banned.
“Russian elections have long since ceased to be free, but there was always a sense that the Kremlin found it at least useful to hold events called ‘elections’—unlike in Soviet times, when there was a single, monolithic party,” said Dr. Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior research fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“Now, in the fifth year of the war, the Kremlin does not give the impression that it is relaxed or confident in its control over public opinion,” he added. At least 23 politicians have been barred from running for office in recent months, often on charges of displaying “extremist” or Nazi symbols, according to media reports.
In 15 cases, the offense was the publication of images or symbols associated with Alexei Navalny, who, according to his allies, was killed by the state; in other cases, candidates were punished for posting links to the banned social media platforms Instagram and Facebook.
One candidate, Daniil Neonov, an independent running in the municipal elections in Moscow’s Shchukino district, was arrested and removed from the election for wearing a rainbow-colored T-shirt.
The overwhelming majority of those barred were affiliated with “Yabloko”—Russia’s oldest liberal party. Eight members of “Yabloko” are behind bars, including deputy leader Maksim Kruglov. Although the party is unlikely to win any seats, “Yabloko,” which earlier this year was projected to receive a low single-digit share of the vote, expects its prospects to improve thanks to disaffected voters seeking to express their opposition to the war.
This has fueled speculation that the Kremlin might ban the party altogether—a party that has participated in every parliamentary election since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the article states.
Lawsuit to Disband a Major Party
On Friday, Russia’s Supreme Court announced that it would consider a lawsuit filed by the pro-Kremlin nationalist party “Rodina” seeking to disqualify “Yabloko.” Alexei Zhuravlev, the leader of “Rodina,” called the party’s members “national traitors.”
“They want to remove us from the election because we stand for peace, whereas they want to prolong the tragedy [of the war] indefinitely,” retorted “Yabloko” leader Nikolai Rybakov.
The initial willingness to grant the party a spot on the ballot indicated that “the Kremlin had decided it was willing to take the risk that Yabloko would capitalize on the growing war fatigue in Russian society,” said Russian journalist Farida Rustamova.
However, the apparent attempt to reverse this decision may indicate that the Kremlin feels more vulnerable than it had anticipated. The decision to remove Nadezhdin—whom many have long considered a useful tool for Moscow to simulate a token liberal opposition—also points to this. Nadezhdin had planned to run as an independent candidate.
Putin’s “sensitivity” has increased
This sensitivity is evident even toward controlled criticism, against the backdrop of record-low approval ratings for both Putin himself and the ruling party, and follows a series of increasingly visible expressions of dissatisfaction with his rule in recent months, according to media reports.
There was Ilya Remeslo, the Kremlin’s “watchdog,” who suddenly turned against Putin and was quickly committed to a psychiatric facility; the Monaco-based glamorous influencer Victoria Bonya, whose sharp criticism of problems in Russia went viral; veteran Alexander Lunin, who threatened to stage a mutiny; and Alexei Yarmushchik, a young actor whose recent viral video declared that Putin was “not his president” and that Crimea was “not ours.”
Against the backdrop of this growing turbulence, analysts and sources close to the Kremlin speak of a culture increasingly subservient to the security forces—a security apparatus that has seized upon Putin’s isolation and paranoia to tighten its grip on the levers of power.
Many close to the Russian president fear that he has granted an unprecedented degree of freedom to the Federal Security Service (FSB), especially its Second Directorate, which is responsible for counterterrorism and protecting Russia’s political order, to persecute alleged enemies with impunity.
This has sparked alarm among the Russian elite, who are concerned that they may find themselves in the crosshairs of security hawks, according to media reports.