PACE declares new Russian State Duma illegitimate, condemns voting on occupied Ukrainian territories

Why it matters

PACE, a key pan-European parliamentary body, has formally declared the newly composed Russian State Duma illegitimate — a political signal that extends beyond the institution itself and reinforces a wider Western refusal to treat the Russian parliament as a democratically elected body. By linking that finding to voting on occupied Ukrainian territory, the resolution also ties the legitimacy question directly to Russia's war against Ukraine and to the legal status of the occupied territories.

What happened

On 30 September, at a plenary session in Strasbourg, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution titled "Fictitious 'elections' in Russia and its destabilising attacks on Europe". Fifty-nine delegates voted in favour and none voted against. PACE found that the Russian State Duma elections of 18–20 September did not meet fundamental conditions for free and fair elections, pointing to systematic suppression of opposition, criminalisation of dissent, intimidation of voters, restrictions on independent information, the barring of the Yabloko party (which ran an anti-war platform), and the absence of OSCE international observers. The new State Duma, the resolution said, cannot be recognised as democratically elected or as a legitimate representative body and cannot be treated as independent of the Russian executive, recalling that it had backed that aggression.

The Assembly condemned the holding of the Russian vote on temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories — in Crimea and Sevastopol, and in the parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts controlled by Russian forces — as well as the coercion of Ukrainian citizens on those territories to take part. It called on Council of Europe member states not to recognise any legal or political consequences of the vote on occupied Ukrainian territory, to limit contacts with the new State Duma and refrain from engaging with it, and to continue the political and diplomatic isolation of the Russian authorities without allowing normalisation of Russia's participation in international formats.

The resolution also called for sanctions against the leadership and members of Russia's Central Election Commission, regional election commissions and other individuals who organised or administered the vote, including on occupied territory, and against those who sought to "represent" the occupied territories; against candidates and "observers" on those territories; and against fictitious observers, including citizens of Council of Europe member states who were present on occupied Ukrainian territory. It further called for Schengen-wide travel restrictions on accredited Russian diplomats and officials, restrictions on the issuance of tourist visas to Russian citizens, stronger support for Ukraine, the use of frozen Russian sovereign assets for Ukraine's defence and reconstruction, and continued efforts to hold Russia accountable for its crimes.

Three amendments to the resolution, submitted by Ukrainian MP Yevheniia Kravchuk of the Verkhovna Rada's delegation to PACE, were included. They affirm that occupation is by nature temporary, does not transfer sovereignty to the occupying state and cannot be used to change the legal status of the occupied territory. Kravchuk reported the outcome of the session on her Facebook page.

How Ukrainian sources describe it

Ukrainian outlets including ZN.UA, Ukrinform, Suspilne Novyny, Hromadske Radio, Babel and NV report PACE's adoption of the resolution as a formal declaration of the new State Duma's illegitimacy and describe the vote as unanimous. The framing centres on domestic Ukrainian stakeholders: it foregrounds Yevheniia Kravchuk, a member of the Verkhovna Rada's standing delegation to PACE, as the source of the news and credits her with three amendments to the resolution. Coverage stresses the inclusion of amendments affirming that occupation does not transfer sovereignty and cannot change the legal status of occupied territory, and it places the PACE vote alongside parallel Ukrainian measures — President Volodymyr Zelensky's 26 September sanctions against 44 individuals linked to the elections on occupied territory, and the Foreign Ministry's characterisation of the Russian-organised vote as a "farce of the occupying power" alongside a declared refusal to recognise either the vote or its results. Ukrainian reporting consistently uses terms such as "pseudovydbory" / "fictitious elections" to describe the Russian vote, foregrounding the occupied-territories dimension as central to the illegitimacy finding.

Background

Russia held State Duma elections on 18–20 September. According to exit polls and Central Election Commission figures, the ruling United Russia party received 57.83% of the vote and won 355 of 450 seats — its largest faction on record. Russia organised voting in 11 single-mandate constituencies illegally created on temporarily occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, as well as in Crimea and Sevastopol. The governments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom and France, as well as the European Union, condemned the holding of the vote on temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory. On 26 September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed sanctions on 44 individuals linked to the elections on those territories, and the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the vote a "farce of the occupying power" and said Ukraine recognises neither the vote nor its results. PACE had previously declared Vladimir Putin an illegitimate president of Russia. Three amendments to the resolution were submitted by Ukrainian MP Yevheniia Kravchuk.