It should come as no surprise that Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, handily won the country’s not-so-free-and-fair parliamentary elections this past week. The party of Vladimir Putin will send a record 349 deputies to the Duma, accounting for an overwhelming majority of the lower house of parliament’s 450 seats. It should also come as no surprise that the three other parties that won seats (the Communists, the LDPR, and the New People party) consistently toed United Russia’s party line, while the openly defiant Yabloko party was banned from participation. However, there was one development that actually was shocking: just how many veterans of Russia’s war in Ukraine are taking office.
Russia’s parliament includes 46 new deputies who are veterans of the war — in total, there were more than 180 party-backed candidates who participated in Russia’s invasion. The development is part of a shift in thinking for the Kremlin, which is now trying to build its political class out of soldiers instead of its long-standing penchant for promoting technocrats.
The strategy started in earnest two years ago when Putin called for a new “elite” and the government launched Time of Heroes, a program meant to train veterans of the war in the ways of civil service — turning rough-hewn combatants into polished statespeople. So far, more than 100 soldiers have graduated from the program and have taken on various mid-level positions in government agencies, ministries, and companies. The use of veterans in this election has taken the project into its next phase.
The logic behind this strategy is twofold. First, there are suddenly a lot more veterans who need to be reintegrated back into society, many of whom are met with suspicion as a rise in violence, crime, and social instability has been correlated with their return. Making an association between the figure of ‘Ukrainian war veteran’ and ‘political elite’ could serve to raise the profile of soldiers in society more broadly.
Likewise, stuffing the political ranks with soldiers could also serve to bolster support for the war, which is dropping among everyday Russians. This year, the war has begun to materially impact the civilian population in a way that it hadn’t previously, with successful Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian energy infrastructure resulting in shortages and higher prices. In general, as the war has dragged on, morale and economic sentiments have deteriorated. A Levada survey from June found that only 52% of respondents felt Russia was moving in the right direction — the lowest share since February 2022, when the war first broke out, and down substantially from 70% during the same time last year.
Even in a repressive autocracy like Russia, maintaining popular support is still vital to keep the wheels moving — as is building a fully aligned political elite. It remains unclear if this new strategy will work. While veterans did well in places where United Russia could exert undue pressure, political scientist Mikhail Komin told the Financial Times that “experience from lower-level elections suggests voters are not particularly eager to back veteran candidates.” Indeed, even though the level of soldier deputies is high, it’s nowhere near as high as some analysts believed it could have been. Bold predictions made by Kremlin-aligned analysts indicated that soldiers might win 40% of the Duma’s seats — in reality, it turned out to be a mere ~10%.
