The 2020 Russian regional elections took place across three days from 11 to 13 September 2020 in 28 out of the 85 federal subjects of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Voters elected 18 directly-elected governors, 2 indirectly-elected governors and 11 regional parliaments. The elections also coincided with local elections in many cities. A total of 156,000 candidates stood for 78,000 positions at regional, local and municipal levels. The vote was extended over three days in a move the government said was to avoid over-crowding and to reduce the risk from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. Candidates for the ruling

United Russia The All-Russian Political Party United Russia (, ) is the Ruling party, ruling List of political parties in Russia, political party of Russia. As the largest party in the Russian Federation, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the St ...

party or their allies won all 20 governorships with more than 50% of the vote, meaning they would not need to hold a second round run-off. However, the party lost their majority in city assemblies in Tomsk,

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

and

Tambov Tambov ( , ; rus, Тамбов, p=tɐmˈbof) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Central Federal District, central Russia, at the confluence of the Tsna River (Moksha basin), Tsna ...

. Ben Noble characterised the elections as the Kremlin's dress rehearsal for the 2021 State Duma elections.

Campaign

The election was led by incumbent candidates from the governing United Russia party competing against parties

Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

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and the Communist Party and independents. Opposition leader

Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny (, ; 4 June 197616 February 2024) was a Russian Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia, opposition leader, anti-corruption in Russia, corruption activist and political prisoner. He founded the Anti-Corruption Found ...

called on opposition voters to use "

Smart Voting Smart Voting () is a tactical voting strategy put forward by the team of Alexei Navalny with the aim of depriving the ruling United Russia party of votes in regional and federal elections. The goal of Smart Voting is to consolidate the votes ...

" by voting for candidates most likely to win against United Russia. The campaign in Archangelsk Oblast came after the governor had proposed fully integrating the

Nenets Autonomous Okrug The Nenets Autonomous Okrug (; ) also known as Nenetsia ( ) is a federal subject of Russia and an autonomous okrug of Arkhangelsk Oblast. Its administrative center is the town of Naryan-Mar. It has an area of and a population of 42,090 ...

into the Oblast. This had provoked demonstrations until the proposals were withdrawn.

Campaign

Results

Gubernatorial elections

References