The Kremlin is pursuing a concerted effort to place dozens of combat veterans from the war in Ukraine into Russia’s State Duma ahead of the country’s first parliamentary elections since the 2022 invasion, according to a fresh assessment by the Institute for the Study of War.
The ISW report, published on August 20, found that the United Russia party intends to run between 40 and 100 war veterans in the September 18-20 elections. Kremlin-co-opted military correspondent and United Russia candidate Yevgeny Poddubny said on August 19 that the party aims to have combat veterans make up roughly 22 percent of the newly elected Duma, creating a cadre of loyal ultranationalist lawmakers who would support the Kremlin’s aggressive policies.
From Battlefield to Ballot Box
The strategy is centered on the Time of Heroes program, a government initiative that places veterans of the war in Ukraine into federal, regional, and local government positions. Putin has repeatedly emphasized the program as a pathway for veterans to serve the state beyond the battlefield. As of August, 20 graduates of the program had already won the United Russia preliminary vote, with 10 running on party lists and 10 competing in single-mandate constituencies.
A Kremlin-affiliated military blogger wrote on August 20 that the Kremlin is promoting veterans because a Duma deputy with combat experience wields a kind of legitimacy that is difficult to publicly challenge. The blogger stressed that Ukrainian war veterans should ultimately become a new elite that would shape and determine Russia’s future, the ISW noted.
Militarizing Society and Government
The push comes as the September elections loom as the first parliamentary vote since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The current Duma includes 310 deputies from United Russia, and the party’s final candidate list includes 76 confirmed war veterans. The European Council on Foreign Relations has estimated that veterans could comprise up to 40 percent of the new Duma, though this figure is considered an upper-bound projection.
Russia’s Central Election Commission has scheduled the vote over three days, from September 18 to 20, with 12 political parties eligible to participate without collecting signatures. The Kremlin appears to be using the elections as a mechanism to build a permanent political class tied to the war effort, ensuring long-term support for continued military operations in Ukraine.
The deputy head of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, a Kremlin-co-opted military correspondent, said the party intends to elect between 40 and 100 combat veterans to the State Duma.
The militarization extends beyond the Duma. Former President Dmitry Medvedev has publicly stated his intention to turn what he calls heroes of the special military operation into a new ruling class. Regional and local governments have also been flooded with veteran candidates through the Time of Heroes program and similar regional initiatives, creating a network of loyal officials across all levels of Russian governance.
Critics and analysts note that the Kremlin is rapidly transforming Russian political institutions to entrench wartime policies. By embedding veterans in parliament, Moscow ensures that any future legislative debate on the war or sanctions relief would be shaped by those with direct personal stakes in the conflict’s continuation, making diplomatic reversals or peace negotiations significantly more difficult in the years ahead.
Sources: Institute for the Study of War; European Council on Foreign Relations; Free Russia Foundation; Meduza
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