Russia’s wartime parliamentary elections
Hello! This week we dig into the Kremlin’s campaign to get ex-soldiers elected to parliament later this year — a move that isn’t exactly popular across society.
How Russia will exploit the war during this year’s parliamentary elections
The Kremlin has officially launched the campaign for the 2026 State Duma elections. It will be the first national elections in which soldiers back from the battlefield in Ukraine are set to play a key part. Prominent figures from the so-called “Special Military Operation” have already secured two of the top five spots on the ruling United Russia party’s national candidate list, led by hawkish ex-president Dmitry Medvedev. However, the political prospects of ex-soldiers are far from straightforward.
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