The Russian authorities used various deceptions to try to win a major victory in the parliamentary elections this weekend. This is how they did it.

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MOSCOW-Russia held local and national elections like clockwork according to the subsequent Soviet Constitution, but the results were almost always the same: President Vladimir V. Putin and politicians and political parties loyal to him won a total victory.

In the parliamentary elections that began on Friday and lasted until Sunday, there is no doubt that his ruling party, the United Russia Party, will win. For the Kremlin, which wants to mobilize support for government policy and strengthen its legitimacy, the trick is to win easily while maintaining the legitimacy of the disputed results.

The Kremlin tries to create the illusion of democratic choice in the following ways, while ensuring that it ranks among the best.

Among voters in an electoral district in St. Petersburg, three people named Boris Vishnevsky will choose candidates, and only one of them is a true opposition politician.

Registering multiple candidates with the same or similar names as opposition candidates is a time-tested Russian election strategy. According to "Kommersant", in the 225 single-constituency competitions held this week, 24 candidates with the same or similar names registered, accounting for about 10% of all competitions.

Russia will never monopolize this strategy: it was used in the 2020 Florida Senate campaign—at least until the scam was discovered.

In the case of multiple Boris Vishnevsky (Boris Vishnevsky), the doubles also took on the appearance of a real opposition candidate, with the same pretzel beards, sparse hair and plain buttoned shirts.

"This is political manipulation," Mr. Vishnevsky, a true professional politician and member of the Yabloko party, said in a telephone interview. He said that others have legally changed their names this year and may use makeup or digitally modified photos to mimic his appearance.

Unlike other authoritarian countries such as Saudi Arabia and China, Russia's multi-party political system was already deeply entrenched when Putin came to power in 1999.

To solve this problem, the Kremlin has adopted two strategies: fake parties and several quasi-independent parties that it calls "systematic opposition."

A year ago, after opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny was poisoned to death in an assassination attempt, a party suddenly appeared to attract dissatisfied young people who formed the basis of his support. professional. The party is called "The New People", imitated many of his anti-corruption messages, but supported Putin's continued governance.

The parties that make up the systemic opposition are more stable and lasting than outright fakes. This group emerged in the mid-2000s under so-called "managemental democracy," including the Communist Party and the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party. They participate in elections ostensibly as opposition groups, but once elected they vote in lock step with the United Russia party, creating a rubber-stamp Parliament.

Until last year, these parties coexisted with the "non-systematic" opposition led by Navalny and called on Putin to step down. But in the past year, in anticipation of the upcoming elections, the government has severely cracked down on the legitimate opposition and sent most leaders, including Navalny, to prison or exile.

If more subtle methods are not enough, there are blunt tools to remove candidates from the ballot.

This summer, the authorities banned the vast majority of candidates — 163 out of 174 — who applied to run for parliament as independents. They accused them of keeping foreign bank accounts or forging signatures required to participate in voting.

Over the years, laws allowing such abuses have expanded, starting with Putin's return to the presidency in 2012 after four years as prime minister.

A law was passed in 2012 to allow NGOs to be designated as “foreign agent functions” and then expanded to cover news media organizations in 2017. Its application this summer suppressed independent news media such as Meduza, Proyekt, and Dozhd TV. A law amendment in 2015 allowed the designation of groups as "unwelcome organizations" with additional restrictions.

This year, Mr. Putin expanded Russia’s strict anti-extremism legislation originally enacted as a counter-terrorism measure to apply to opposition politicians in Mr. Navalny’s organization.

The Russian government purchases voter loyalty by providing "temporary funds". This practice was once common in the United States, but it usually provides a lump-sum payment to soldiers, public sector workers, and retirees a few weeks before the election.

This year, members of the security service received 15,000 rubles, which is approximately US$205, and retirees and parents of school-age children received 10,000 rubles. A series of presidential decrees behind them were signed in July and August, appointing payment in September—the eve of voting.

These expenditures have been glorified in pro-government campaign advertisements. An advertisement narrated by a soldier’s girlfriend said: “After our president signed a one-time payment to soldiers, cadets and police, I have confidence in my future.”

Russia allows online voting, and many companies have arranged for employees to vote on computers set up by the human resources department.

Critics say this may let their bosses know their choices, thereby intimidating voters.

This summer, the authorities banned about four dozen websites related to Mr. Navalny’s campaign, which promoted his electoral voting guidelines. This strategy, which he calls smart voting, is essentially to unite opposition voters around the strongest anti-Crimean candidate in each game.

On Friday, after the Kremlin threatened to arrest their employees in Russia, the remaining apps that Navalny's forces planned to use were removed from Google and the Apple App Store, and these plans were disrupted.

Earlier, the Russian authorities had tried more clever methods. For example, recently, a company selling wool in southern Russia registered "Smart Voting" as a commercial trademark.

It then sued Google and the Russian search engine Yandex, accusing them of infringing on its trademark rights, and demanding that they block websites that display Mr. Navalny’s voting guidelines. A Russian court quickly ruled in favor of the company.

As the "non-systematic" opposition attempts to subvert the government's strategy, a high-stakes game of cat and mouse has sprung up.

Opposition candidates who have been imprisoned or banned from participating in public events by the court appear in life-size cardboard cutouts. A candidate sentenced to jail, Andrei Pivovarov, was completely cut out of cardboard in his campaign office in the southern city of Krasnodar.

Mr. Navalny's team has stated that they hope that its "smart voting" strategy can win at least one opposition politician a seat in parliament, possibly as many as 20.

Now, with the removal of the app from the Google and Apple stores, that goal seems unachievable, keeping the Kremlin's dubious record in elections alive: since 2016, there have been no "unsystematic" opposition members in the 450- Seat body.