Kremlin to stuff State Duma with 100 Ukraine war veterans at next election

Russia’s Presidential Administration intends to have roughly 100 veterans of the war in Ukraine elected to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, in next year’s parliamentary elections, Telegram channel Faridaily reported on Thursday.

The next Duma, which is due to be elected in late 2026, is being viewed by the Kremlin as its post-war parliament, according to an unnamed source that spoke to Faridaily. The approximately 100 new deputies would make up almost a quarter of the chamber’s 450 seats.

One current deputy told Faridaily that electing veterans of the war in Ukraine to the Duma was the easiest way to demonstrate their having been brought into the political fold. “This isn’t the executive branch, where the money is, or the financial and industrial groups, where the true power-brokers … are, but powerless representative government,” he said.

The veterans chosen will be nominated as candidates by the ruling United Russia party, the “main platform” for veterans and their interests, according to Dmitry Orlov, a political analyst close to the government, which thanks to its control of all levels of government in Russia, has always won elections by huge margins. The election of any candidates put forward by United Russia is therefore a foregone conclusion.

Last year, the Kremlin launched A Time of Heroes, a programme aimed at offering career advancement to a new Russian elite made up of Ukraine war veterans stringently selected for their loyalty and suitability for high office.

Since then, 27 veterans have trained under the programme and became officials, its press service reported earlier this month. The first cohort of trainees consisted of 83 people in total who were taken on in the spring of 2024.