As support for Putin slips, the Kremlin lowers the ruling party’s election target amid fears a landslide victory would look suspicious

Meduza's sources inside Russia's Presidential Administration say the Kremlin has quietly lowered the election target for United Russia, the ruling party, ahead of September parliamentary elections. The party was initially expected to win fifty-five percent of the vote; by mid-July, that target had fallen to forty-five percent. The slide reflects falling support for Putin — his approval dropped from seventy-nine percent in January to seventy-one percent by July — driven by fuel shortages, rising prices, and public fatigue with the war in Ukraine. Rather than pressure all regions uniformly, officials say the Kremlin now plans to concentrate electoral effort where it's historically worked best, betting that a forty-five percent result will look more believable than a larger margin.

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