Meduza’s sources say Dmitry Medvedev is tired of being a ‘troll’ and wants back in Russia’s political spotlight

For several years, Dmitry Medvedev’s public presence has been shaped less by his official duties than by his incendiary posts on social media. Now, sources tell Meduza that Russia’s onetime reformist president turned pro-war hawk wants to return to center stage by taking the top spot on United Russia’s federal ticket in the 2026 State Duma elections. Meduza special correspondent Andrey Pertsev spoke with Kremlin insiders to find out what — and who — could stand in the way of Medvedev’s comeback.

‘Something that still feels alive’

Earlier this month, Vedomosti reported that former president Dmitry Medvedev — now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and the formal leader of United Russia — could head the party’s federal list for the September 2026 State Duma elections. The party’s federal list, which may include up to 15 people, would either feature Medvedev as its sole candidate or as part of a “top three” or “part five,” Vedomosti’s sources said. Medvedev previously led United Russia’s list in 2011 and 2016.

The outlet RBC later reported that the Kremlin’s domestic policy team and United Russia’s leadership had allegedly already agreed on a “base scenario” featuring a “top five” that would include Medvedev alongside Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, prominent Moscow doctor Marianna Lysenko, pro-Kremlin war blogger Yevgeny Poddubny, and Yunarmiya chief of staff Vladislav Golovin.

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RBC also reported that the Putin administration and United Russia are conducting opinion polling to gauge voter attitudes toward various party figures — not only Lavrov, Golovin, and Poddubny, but also Anna Tsivileva, Russia’s deputy defense minister and Putin’s cousin’s daughter, as well as Artyom Zhoga, a veteran of Russia’s war in Ukraine who now serves as Putin’s envoy to the Ural Federal District.

One source close to the administration told Meduza that the jockeying over United Russia’s list is “at least something that still feels alive” in Russian politics, a sphere where genuine competition has long been absent. At the same time, unlike RBC’s sources, he said that without a final decision from Putin on the nominees, speculation about the list is meaningless. A Meduza source within United Russia agreed.

According to both these sources, all options remain under discussion within the Kremlin and the party — including a “top three,” a “top five,” or a single figure heading the federal-level list. There is still no final agreement on the makeup of the “top five” described by RBC, they said. A source close to the Kremlin also named other potential candidates, including Defense Minister Andrey Belousov and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and the Kremlin’s main negotiator in talks with the Trump administration.

Reintroducing Medvedev

Both Vedomosti and RBC attributed Medvedev’s potential inclusion on the federal-level list to what they described as his high approval ratings. However, a Meduza source within United Russia and another source working with the Kremlin’s domestic policy team said that Medvedev himself is actively pushing to lead the list. His reportedly high trust ratings, they argue, are largely a function of name recognition. When asked open-ended questions about which politicians they trust, Russians don’t mention Medvedev, according to Meduza’s sources.

What is Medvedev’s approval rating?

According to a December poll by the state-owned Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), 42.5 percent of respondents said they trust the former president. At the same time, his disapproval rating is almost identical, at 42.6 percent. These figures come from a direct question in which interviewers name a specific politician and ask whether respondents trust them.

However, in the open-ended portion of the same survey — where respondents are asked to name, unprompted, a politician they trust — Medvedev’s name didn’t come up once.

In an open-ended trust survey conducted by the Levada Center in August 2025, only 4 percent of respondents mentioned Medvedev spontaneously.

During the previous State Duma elections in 2021, United Russia’s formal leader was not included in the party’s federal list at all. At the time, according to VTsIOM, Medvedev’s trust rating hovered around 20 percent, while distrust stood at roughly 70 percent.

In February 2022, Medvedev’s trust and distrust ratings remained at similar levels. After the start of the full-scale war, however, VTsIOM data shows that trust in the former president began to rise.

“Talk of approval ratings is really just a formal pretext for putting him at the top of the list. Medvedev needs to recapitalize his image — to reintroduce himself to both the elites and the public,” a Kremlin insider told Meduza. “Right now, his public persona — an Internet troll holding a vaguely defined post — doesn’t match his actual bureaucratic weight. But he does have real leverage through the party and his position on the Security Council, over the defense industry and over the government.”

Members of the Russian government are set to take part in a so-called “background campaign,” with United Russia planning to hold forums in eight federal districts featuring deputy prime ministers and cabinet ministers. As deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, Medvedev oversees the commission responsible for recruiting contract soldiers and for fulfilling the state defense order.

At the same time, a Kremlin insider told Meduza that not everyone in the Putin administration is pleased with Medvedev’s ambition to lead the federal portion of the party list — a view echoed by a source within United Russia.

Because of Medvedev’s “controversial image,” it will be difficult for the Kremlin’s domestic policy team to deliver new electoral records for United Russia, a political strategist close to the Putin administration told Meduza. “He’s explicitly pro-war. And people are tired of the war,” the strategist explained. Medvedev’s proximity on the party list to other war-associated figures, the source added, could further reinforce perceptions of United Russia as a “party of war.”

More broadly, Meduza’s sources say the possible inclusion of multiple war-linked figures is an attempt by the Kremlin’s domestic policy team to please Vladimir Putin, who wants participants in the invasion of Ukraine to be seen as the country’s “true elite.”

A ‘head start’ in the succession race

A source close to the Putin administration believes that Sergey Kiriyenko, who oversees the administration’s domestic policy bloc, would also prefer not to see Dmitry Medvedev at the top of the party list, as this would strengthen the former president within the system. Medvedev, the source said, could “gain a head start in the race” among potential successors to Vladimir Putin. “He would have a trump card in the form of United Russia’s official election result — regardless of how that result is achieved. The others won’t have anything like that,” the source told Meduza.

Both this source and a source within United Russia say Medvedev’s appearance on the list would also be unwelcome to Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma. Volodin is now in his second term as speaker and could be subject to rotation, though he hopes to retain the post. (In modern Russian history, no speaker has held the position for more than two terms.)

“There’s a chance [Volodin keeps the job] if there’s no behind-the-scenes reshuffling or some undesirable scenario,” a United Russia source explained. “Medvedev on the list is one such scenario. It would be odd for the party’s formal leader and the list’s top figure — who holds neither the presidency nor the premiership — to turn down a mandate. And if he accepts it, the only position befitting a former president and prime minister in the Duma is the speaker’s chair.”

That same source stressed that it is still too early to talk about the final lineup. “Until the party congress formally nominates candidates, nothing is settled. There’s plenty of time until May or June. If, for whatever reason, peace or even a ceasefire is reached with Ukraine, a very different lineup will be needed,” he said.

Another unresolved question for both the presidential administration and United Russia is what platform — and what ideological message — the ruling party will take into the election. Proposals on that front are to be prepared for Putin by Kiriyenko, after which the president will approve the overall line he prefers.

Two sources close to the presidential administration described three main approaches under discussion. Alexander Kharichev, a Kiriyenko ally who heads the Kremlin unit responsible for monitoring social trends, favors a “conservative-patriotic” platform in the spirit of his ideologically charged writings on sacrifice and collectivism. Vladimir Yakushev, first deputy speaker of the Federation Council and head of United Russia’s general council, supports traditional slogans focused on “tangible results.” Kiriyenko himself, Meduza’s sources say, is considering a campaign built around “hints of post-war development.”

Story by Andrey Pertsev