Election to the 7th convocation of the Moscow City Duma took place on the United Voting Day on 8 September 2019.

[6][7] In an attempt to potentially prevent a number of independent candidates (affiliated with the United Russia) to be elected for the Moscow City Duma, opposition politician Alexey Navalny launched the “Smart Voting” project, which urged Russian citizens to strategically vote towards any presumably strongest candidates who were not supporters of the United Russia.

[8] On 26 July 2019, the "Liberal Mission" Foundation published a report entitled “Results of the nomination and registration at the elections of deputies of the Moscow City Duma on 8 September 2019”.

[13] However, some strong candidates, even nominated by political parties represented in the State Duma, were excluded from the race.

Independent candidates accused the MCEC of forgery in verifying signatures aimed at prohibiting the opposition to participate in elections.

In addition, a significant part of the signatures was invalidated on the grounds of a so-called handwriting examination, which scientific validity and impartiality the candidates questioned.

[3][4][5] On the other hand, the MCEC registered 32 candidates from Communists of Russia party, which has very low popularity (during 2016 election to the State Duma it collected 2%).

[22] Positive articles about pro-United Russia candidates began to appear in district newspapers six months before the official start of the race, thus allowing to identify them.

[27] Shortly before election day, fake "smart vote" (see below) posters with wrong candidate began to appear.

Even authorities later admitted that FBK investigations had a significant impact on protest activity and election results.

[39] On July 1, the FBK published an investigation of Andrey Metelsky's, the leader of the United Russia faction in the Moscow City Duma, property.

[42][43] On July 22, the FBK revealed that pro-government journalist Vladimir Solovyov has an Italian permanent residency.

The FBK estimates Sergunina's (along with close relatives) undeclared real estate value at 6.5 billion rub (~ US$100 mln).

[51] On August 15, the FBK published an investigation of Alexei Shaposhnikov's, the chairman of the Moscow City Duma, property.

[56] On August 22, the FBK published an investigation of Vladimir Regnatsky's, the head of Security and Anti-Corruption Department of Moscow City, property.

He owns and manages a motorcycle shop "Alpine", while the Russian legislation prohibits deputies from doing business.

[65][66] On September 2, the FBK published an investigation of the deputy of the Moscow City Duma Lyudmila Stebenkova's property.

[67][68] On September 3, the FBK published an investigation of the deputy of the Moscow City Duma Stepan Orlov's property.

[69][70] On September 4, the FBK published an investigation of the deputy of the Moscow City Duma Kirill Shchitov's property.

Her daughter's husband, Aaron-Elizer Aronov, owns the "Aviapark" mall worth of 4.3 bln rub (~US$67.2 mln).

However, political analysts Ivan Bolshakov and Vladimir Perevalov suggest that a high assessment of this strategy is emotional rather than scientific.

They conclude that the success of the opposition can be explained by the combination of two factors: the increase in protest sentiments, which reduced the electoral base of the pro-government nominees, and the decrease in the level of competition inside the opposition, due to both the “smart voting” strategy and disqualification of candidates.

[85] 31 self-promoted candidates from Communists of Russia party collected only 79062 votes altogether, though they had submitted around 160 000 signatures from voters to participate in elections.