Kremlin wants Russia’s Parliamentary Parties to Win Votes of Returning Veterans to Avoid The Emergence of Some Soldiers Party, Moscow Commentator Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 30 – Veterans of Putin’s war in Ukraine are unlikely to play a major independent political role on their return, Sergey Aksyonov says. Instead of forming something like the soldiers’ deputies in the early Soviet period, they are likely to be recruited by one or more of the country’s existing parties.

            The Kremlin has already signaled its desire that the parties reach out to the veterans, the Moscow commentator says, by having Valery Fyodorov, the head of the VTsIOM polling agency, give an interview in which he spoke about the four Russia’s sociologists have identified and the way veterans can be drawn into politics (svpressa.ru/politic/article/470506/).

For Fyodorov’s interview, see gazeta.ru/social/2025/06/30/21276140.shtml; and on the four Russias idea, see monitoringjournal.ru/index.php/monitoring/article/view/2775/2145).

What makes Aksyonov’s argument important is that it suggests that the Kremlin is focusing on what the returning veterans will do at the ballot box in 2025 and wants the existing parliamentary parties to offer programs to win their support rather than having someone emerge to speak for the veterans as a group, a development that could cause Putin difficulties.