Foreign campaign: Russia expects record number of cyber attacks during elections
A record number of hacker attacks on the electronic voting system (EEG) are expected during the State Duma elections, which will be held from September 18 to 20. Foreign special services may be preparing attacks, but they will not be able to damage the system, the chairman of the territorial election commission (TEC) told Izvestia. DAG Oleg Artamonov. The peak of cyber attacks, according to him, will be on September 18. This year, the use of DEG is expanding — it will involve 33 regions, and 2.7 million people have applied for online voting.
Why should we expect an increase in hacker attacks?
From September 18 to 20, Russians will have to elect 450 parliamentarians to the State Duma. At the same time, residents of 39 regions of the country will vote for deputies of local and regional legislative assemblies, and in eight regions they will choose governors.
In 2026, the remote electronic voting system (DEG) will be used in 33 regions, which has become an all-time record for its use. In the presidential elections in March 2026, the system was used in 29 regions, and in the elections to the State Duma in 2021 - in seven.
A record number of cyber attacks in the entire history of the system is expected in the upcoming elections, Oleg Artamonov, chairman of the TIC DEG, told Izvestia. According to him, the main peak of hacker activity traditionally falls on the first day of voting — September 18.
— Due to the importance of the elections, we expect a number of major attacks, including more than last fall. It is the large-scale attacks that are carried out by professional groups, possibly by the special services of individual states, that will be more important. But, on the other hand, we do not expect that they will be able to cause any damage to the system," the expert said.
In the 2025 elections, the CEC reported about 700 attacks on the electronic voting system. About 400-460 similar incidents were recorded during the 2024 presidential election.
To check the system's readiness before the main vote, the all-Russian testing of the federal DEG platform will take place on September 9-10, Oleg Artamonov said. All 32 regions where the system will operate will participate in it. They will check, among other things, the correctness of data preparation and the operation of individual elements of the platform. At the same time, separate testing was previously conducted for Moscow.
According to the expert, technical issues were sometimes identified during previous inspections. They were eliminated before the start of the main vote. This year, the specialist does not expect serious problems, he ruled out the possibility of removing any region from the DEG based on the results of testing.
About 2.7 million Russian voters have already applied to vote remotely, CEC Chairman Ella Pamfilova reported on September 2. In total, 48.4 million Russians will be able to potentially use the DEG in the upcoming elections, she said. Moscow uses its own platform. Residents of other regions need to submit an application in advance through Gosuslugi to participate in electronic voting, but Muscovites do not.: they can vote without prior application.
Prospects of electronic voting in the Russian Federation
The expansion of the DEG is gradually changing the very model of participation in elections. Previously, electronic voting was an experimental tool for a relatively limited number of regions, but now it is becoming one of the main ways of expressing the will of millions of citizens.
For the first time, DEG was applied on a Single Voting Day on September 8, 2019 in Moscow during the elections of deputies to the City Duma. The main effect of the DEG expansion this year will be an increase in turnout, both in the participating regions and across the country, Roman Molozhon, Deputy General Director of the Polylog Group for political Projects, explained to Izvestia. In 2021, the final turnout in the State Duma elections was 51.72%.
According to the expert, online voting will involve those who are not always ready to come to the polling station: young people, middle-aged voters and, in general, an audience accustomed to using digital services. Therefore, their share among those who voted may increase.
The federal DEG platform itself is technically ready to work in any region of Russia, Oleg Artamonov specified. The decision to participate depends on how well the territorial commission of a particular subject can technically host online voting.
The parties can be divided into three camps in relation to the DEG: United Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party advocate online elections, as it is convenient and reliable. "New People" note that they are not against progress, but they demand to strengthen digital control mechanisms in order to increase the transparency of the process. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Fair Russia are categorically opposed, considering the system a tool for manipulation. According to Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, DEG is unreliable, costs more than preparing paper ballots, and also allows you to "fake" the results.
In the foreseeable future, DEG will retain its role as a convenient alternative to traditional voting, Roman Molozhon believes. Its further spread depends primarily on the level of trust, which is formed gradually through the regular use of the tool and the personal experience of voters. The geography of DEG and the number of its users will expand, but there are no prerequisites for ousting the traditional format yet, the expert is sure.
International practice also shows that electronic voting is gradually becoming one of the tools for modernizing elections. It is already being used on an ongoing basis in Estonia, applied in certain regions or for certain categories of voters in Switzerland, France, Canada, Australia, Mexico and Armenia, while a number of countries, including Norway and Finland, have abandoned its further implementation after experiments.
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