United Russia presented a list of candidates for the State Duma elections. It included “military correspondent” Poddubny and the head of the Yunarmiya

Chairman of the United Russia party, Deputy Head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev presented the top five of the federal list of candidates for the upcoming elections to the State Duma. The party's list was headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, "military correspondent", deputy director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Evgeniy Poddubny, participant in the war in Ukraine and head of the military-patriotic movement "Yunarmiya" Vladislav Golovin. TASS reports this.

The full list of more than 600 names was later read out by the secretary of the general council, Vladimir Yakushev. It included several governors, some of whom headed their regional groups. They are likely to transfer their mandates to other people. After the last elections in 2021, four of the five leaders of the list abandoned their mandates, including Lavrov.

Vladimir Putin spoke at the party congress. He called on party members to “sit less in offices and messengers” and communicate more with people, promised to fulfill all social obligations and important development programs, despite the “difficult stage,” and talked a lot about the fight with the West.

“Russia is experiencing brutal, one might say without any exaggeration, unprecedented pressure from Western elites. They cannot inflict a strategic defeat on us or defeat us on the battlefield. <...> They want to weaken us in any way. Get rid of us as a world factor that has always stood in the way of evil. This has never worked for anyone, it won’t work now, and it won’t work in the future,” he said.

At the congress, for the first time since 2007, symbols were used that directly linked United Russia and Putin. In particular, a propaganda poster was presented with a portrait of Putin and the inscriptions “To be za Putin is the basic minimum” and “United Russia is the party of the president.”