Russian leader Vladimir Putin said the country’s next generation of political leadership should be made up of veterans of the war in Ukraine. He made the comments during a meeting with various groups in the State Duma and also spoke about the participation of war veterans in elections.
In Putin’s Russia, as Newsweek reminds us, there is little room for any meaningful expression of dissent or political opposition, and the United Russia party, with which the Russian leader is closely associated, firmly controls the overall political and social situation.
This new demand of his indicates a further strengthening of the fierce Russian nationalism that dominates the pillars of political power under Putin and the encouragement of an atmosphere of a new Cold War between Moscow and the West, a political and cultural environment that is likely to continue even after his final departure from power.
“We must seek, find and propose people who are fearless in serving the homeland and who were willing to risk their health and even their lives. Such people should rise to leadership positions. They will be our successors. This is something we should think about. And thank you for proposing such people.“, Putin said, according to the state news agency TASS.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and has recruited hundreds of thousands of people to fight. It has even released prisoners, including those convicted of the most serious crimes, to serve on the battlefields in Ukraine.
The Kremlin does not regularly release figures on military casualties, but some estimates put the number of Russian soldiers killed in the hundreds of thousands. Those who survive, Newsweek reports, often return home deeply traumatized, creating a new wave of social problems that the Russian state must grapple with, including serious crime and violence, as it tries to reintegrate veterans into society.
“In total, perhaps more than 1.5 million Russian men and women have participated in the war since the beginning of 2025.“, Mark Galeotti, a Kremlinologist and author of numerous books on Putin and Russian politics, who wrote a report on the issue for the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, told Reuters.
