Volgograd residents called the upcoming State Duma elections meaningless.

Residents of the Volgograd region are dissatisfied with the fuel shortage, air alerts, and housing and communal services issues, but do not see any opportunity to influence the situation in the upcoming elections and do not see the point in participating in the voting.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", by September 10, queues at gas stations in Volgograd had decreased, there were more working gas stations in the city, residents reported, linking the improvements to the upcoming elections. The State Duma elections in the Volgograd region lack intrigue — candidates besides the United Russia party, two of whom previously held deputy seats, are not conducting an active campaign.

From September 18 to 20, 2026, elections for deputies of the State Duma of the IX convocation will be held in the Volgograd region. The federal list of the "United Russia" party from the region is headed by the current governor of the region, Andrey Bocharov. The list also includes the head of the State Duma Committee on Transport, Evgeny Moskvitchev, the mayor of Volgograd, Vladimir Marchenko, the head of the city's Public Chamber, Evgeny Knyazev, the deputy chairman of the regional Duma, Zina Merzhoeva, the director of the local branch of the Center "VOIN", Igor Vorobyov, and the head of the Regional Management Center, Oleg Yegorushin.

Residents of the Volgograd region told a correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" about the problems that concern them the most ahead of the elections. The survey is not representative and reflects only the private opinions of the respondents.

Students Elena Gavrilova and Anastasia Ivanova named the inaccessibility of higher education "for the younger generation" as their main problem.

"Well, what do we see? It is difficult to get into universities now. We managed to enroll on a budget because we worked hard in school. But now, even if you study in school with straight A's, it’s not a fact that you can get into a university on a budget. And paying hundreds of thousands of rubles for a school year is something that not every family can afford," said 22-year-old Elena.

"The state does not need people with higher education right now. Especially not humanitarians. Our university has long closed the history department. Historians are not needed. Now everyone is sent to technical schools and colleges after the 9th grade. They say that people with working professions are needed. And I think they just want to draft our boys into the army faster," Anastasia expressed her outrage. The girl added that neither she nor her friends and relatives see any point in participating in the upcoming elections.

The fuel shortage has affected voters' moods

Most of the surveyed Volgograd residents named the fuel crisis as the main irritating factor during the election period. Thus, 30-year-old resident of Volzhsky Nikolai Zuev stated that "the fuel crisis in the region is rapidly turning into a collapse."

"Two days ago, it seemed to have eased. Many gas stations started selling gasoline, queues seemed to have decreased, and in some places (at gas stations) they even started allowing gasoline to be poured into cans. But again we see a sharp fuel shortage in the region," Zuev complained.

The driver reported that there is no gasoline at the gas station on Alexandrov Street in Volzhsky. Fuel is also absent at the gas stations on Pushkin Street. "On Gorky Street, I could only fill up there; there is now a queue of 50 cars. I fill up once a week, and every time the price for A-92 is higher than before. They say that the antimonopoly service is monitoring the situation. But what can they do when there is no gasoline in the country? It’s clear that it will keep getting more expensive," Zuev stated.

A resident of the Krasnoarmeysky district, who introduced himself as Dmitry, works, as he said, "in the budget sector." The main source of tension that the authorities are trying to relieve before the elections, Dmitry believes, is not only the fuel crisis but also housing and communal services issues.

"In our district, a large proportion of apartment buildings were built by German prisoners of war from (manure) and sticks. It’s clear that all of them are now recognized as emergency, and people are being resettled from there slowly. Many residents remain in the houses because the conditions in the temporary housing fund, where they are transferred, are often worse. People live in dampness, among mold, without heating and normal water supply. It requires a lot of money to resettle people, like in Moscow with their renovation. But where does the money go here, like into a furnace? I’d better keep quiet," Dmitry said.

As an example of the dire state of housing and communal services in the region, Dmitry also mentioned the district center of Kotovo, where his relative lives with his family. "Kotovo has long been a city of communal catastrophe. They sit for years without water and heat. The authorities cannot establish order in housing and communal services there. This is what future deputies should pay attention to, not tell us about patriotism. In general, the elections will be meaningless and toothless," the interlocutor stated.

A resident of the district center Ilovlya Zhanna Kurilkova also noted that ahead of the elections, the fuel crisis in the Ilovlya district has flared up again. According to the woman, there is again no gasoline at the gas stations in Ilovlya; you can only fill up at the TNK gas station on the federal highway "Caspian" at the turn to Zheltukhin, 10 kilometers from the district center.

"Our central district hospital was so optimized that after the renovation last year, 12 doctors left. There was a corruption scandal there. As a result, to see a specialist, you have to travel two hundred kilometers to the regional center. Here’s your accessible environment, here’s your quality of life, here’s the work of our authorities and deputies in the regional and state Dumas," the woman expressed her outrage.

Zhanna Kurilkova praised the regional administration for supporting agricultural producers, but she considers the effectiveness of this assistance to be low. "The regional authorities provide financial assistance to farmers. So far, there have been no problems with diesel fuel. The harvest has mostly been gathered. But what will happen next year if the fuel crisis is not overcome? I looked at who is trying to get into the State Duma; I found not a single decent candidate — neither from the ruling party nor from other parties. There are no agrarian specialists there," Kurilkova stated.

Budget workers are instructed to bring relatives and acquaintances to the polling stations

Journalist Vyacheslav Lemkus is monitoring the election campaign in the Volgograd region. He agrees with the opinion that there are no "worthy people and good specialists" among the candidates. He describes the situation that has developed in many areas of economic and communal life in the region as pre-revolutionary.

"We increasingly observe the power's impotence, and the people's discontent is growing louder. The upper echelons can no longer manage, and the lower echelons increasingly do not want to live as before. We see the power's impotence not only in how clumsily it tries to resolve the fuel crisis in the region, not only in the difficulty with which they support communal services and healthcare, and not in the foolish decisions made in the field of education. We observe the power's impotence in its inability and unwillingness to govern the country and the people. This is perfectly demonstrated by our clumsy and uninitiated candidates for deputies presented in the current toothless and useless elections," the journalist stated.

Referring to "employees of cultural organizations" in Volgograd, Vyacheslav Lemkus reported that budget workers are instructed "from above" to bring three to five friends or relatives to the polling stations, specifying their names and addresses. Everyone needs to come on September 18 and vote for the "United Russia" party.

"This was already the case in the previous elections. Those who try to ignore the order, for example, come at another time and without acquaintances or relatives, will be tracked and punished, just like in the previous elections. It is said that even the voting results can somehow be tracked in these "secret" elections. Up to dismissal... People are afraid and do what they are ordered," Lemkus reported.

There are no prospects for protest

Civil activist Andrey Rebrov believes that the Volgograd region has "quite a rich experience of civil protest." "Even if we only take the last few years, we can recall the queues for Nadezhdin, which were no less than the queues in such "protest cities" as Yekaterinburg or Novosibirsk; the mass laying of flowers at the monuments to the victims of political repressions in Volgograd and Volzhsky in memory of Alexei Navalny; the action on Constitution Day in 2023 by activist Galina Tikhnenko, the footage of which spread across the country," Andrey said.

However, Rebrov currently does not see any chances for "broad civil protest in the region." Despite the constant air alerts, fuel shortages, and inflation, he believes that mass rallies are not to be expected in the near future.

"Firstly, people are very frightened. In recent years, repression in the Volgograd region has increased significantly. Recently, well-known lawyer Roman Melnychenko was sent to a pre-trial detention center, many activists have gone through searches and detentions, and independent journalists have been driven out of the region or forced to cease their activities. Secondly, Volgograd residents cannot express their disagreement with the current authorities even in the elections," Andrey Rebrov stated.

According to the civil activist, Bocharov's administration has turned the region into "an electoral sultanate." Elections, in the interlocutor's opinion, have become completely controlled, and the final result "has nothing to do with the real will of the people."

"For example, I know many people who intentionally made their ballots invalid in the presidential elections in 2024, but in the final protocols, the line for "invalid ballots" showed the number "0". This happened at several polling stations," Andrey said.

Andrey Rebrov noted that none of the existing parliamentary parties will contribute to the development and strengthening of protest. In the activist's opinion, their task is to "quell possible protest, acting as valves for releasing steam": so that a person who disagrees with the policies of "United Russia" and Putin votes, for example, for the Communist Party or "New People" and feels that they have expressed their disagreement.

"All these parties will continue to support repressive laws. Moreover, in all three districts of our region, the lists of single-member candidates have been effectively cleaned: either technical candidates have been nominated, or candidates who actively support military actions and repressions," the activist expressed.

If the "Yabloko" party had been allowed to the elections, Andrey suggested, the residents of the region could have received directions for observation from the party. The other parties are afraid or do not want to issue directions to unfamiliar people in the precinct election commissions, fearing that information about violations at the polling stations will become public, he is convinced.

"I have worked as an observer in elections several times and can confidently say that one of the most noticeable forms of electoral protest is to make your ballot invalid. You can simply mark all the boxes, or you can write a slogan or phrase that a person would be afraid to say publicly. Even if the protocols are then rewritten, and the vote is not counted as the voter expected, such a slogan will still be read by the commission members and will likely be discussed for a long time," Andrey suggested.

Another relatively safe way for Volgograd residents to show their disagreement, according to the activist, may be to come to the polling stations exactly at 12:00. This method of protest has already been used at many polling stations in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2024. Andrey's acquaintances from these cities told him that exactly at noon, queues of 50-100 people lined up in front of their polling stations. No one shouted slogans, but it was clear to both the gathered and the commission members that the people who came to vote at that time were unlikely to support the main candidate.

"At the same time, despite all the dishonesty of the ongoing elections, I do not consider a boycott an effective way to express protest. It is never possible to understand why a person did not come to the elections: because they are satisfied with everything and do not see the point in voting, because they were busy with their own affairs, or because they were trying to express protest in this way," Andrey Rebrov said.

Volgograd lawyer Vladimir Kruglyakov believes that there is protest potential in the Volgograd region: citizens are extremely dissatisfied with constant internet outages, fuel shortages, and constant air alerts.

"This discontent is already manifesting; people are quite openly talking about it. But the dissatisfied currently have no resources to influence anything. In the Duma elections, none of the parties are talking about these problems, and the security forces are selectively, but still, carrying out repressions against the dissatisfied. This discontent also concerns the Duma parties. Therefore, I think none of them will be able to consolidate the protest electorate," Kruglyakov said.