By The Moscow Times | Created at 2025-03-06 11:10:18 | Updated at 2025-03-06 14:17:46
3 hours ago
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting with war veterans.
er.ru
The Kremlin plans to place 100 veterans of Russia’s war in Ukraine into the State Duma in 2026, exiled journalist Farida Rustamova reported Thursday, citing anonymous lawmakers and a Kremlin source familiar with the matter.
The move would see war veterans make up more than one-fifth of Russia’s 450-member lower house of parliament and one-third of the ruling United Russia party, which holds a supermajority in the State Duma and plans to nominate them.
Electing veterans is the “easiest” way to integrate them into government after President Vladimir Putin elevated them as Russia’s “new elite” last year, one source told Rustamova.
“Not to the executive branch where the money is, not to the financial and industrial groups where the real masters of Russia are, but to a powerless representative government,” the source was quoted as saying.
To prevent potential disloyalty among war veterans-turned-lawmakers, the Kremlin plans to bring in deputy governors and other government officials who have served at the front rather than career soldiers, according to one source cited by Rustamova.
State Duma elections are scheduled to be held in September 2026.
Authorities in Russia have increasingly sought to place Ukraine war veterans into political office in an apparent bid to boost support for United Russia and the country’s ongoing war efforts while also rewarding soldiers for their service.
More than a dozen former soldiers have been appointed to government positions after completing the veterans training program “Time of Heroes.”
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