More than a thousand participants in the war in Ukraine have already received positions in the Russian government system - Meduza

At least 1,305 participants in the war in Ukraine have already received or retained positions, mandates or public roles in Russian state and para-state structures. This is stated in the Meduza study.

🔵 The process has accelerated. The systematic promotion of “Northern Military District veterans” began in 2024, after the launch of the “Time of Heroes” program. According to Meduza’s calculations, there were 45 such appointments in 2023, 201 in 2024, 754 in 2025, and 311 from January to May 2026 alone.

The leaders in this list are the Moscow region, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, occupied Crimea and Sevastopol, Samara region, Yakutia and Novosibirsk region.

🔵 Broken social elevator? Participation in the war became a career booster, but primarily for those who had previously been associated with the state. Of the 1,305 people, at least 848 already had experience similar to the civil service. Regular military personnel remain a minority among those who find themselves in power.

🔵 Limited influence . Meduza’s interlocutors say that war veterans are more often appointed to positions not associated with large budgets and serious management work: youth policy, patriotic education, interaction with veterans.

Almost half of all new appointments, mandates and public roles are at the municipal level - 656 out of 1311. Federal positions - 85, regional - 570. The most common role for “veterans of the Northern Military District” is deputy.

🔵 How do they get positions? There are several main ways. The first is “Time of Heroes” and regional analogues: at least 446 people received appointments through such programs. The second is elections, mainly municipal and regional: this gives public status, but rarely real influence. The third is the continuation of an existing career.

🔵 For “our own” - formal participation. A separate case is “deputy battalions” and volunteer formations like BARS, through which officials and politicians can receive the status of war participants without necessarily being on the front line. Meduza found at least 113 current officials who served in BARS: 22 of them subsequently received a new position, 91 retained their previous post.

The Chechen battalion “Akhmat” plays a similar role.

🔵 The front is a way to escape persecution. For some officials and politicians, participation in war becomes a way to avoid or delay criminal prosecution. By March 2026, at least 1,100 people convicted of corruption were serving in the “SVO zone.” As of the spring of 2025, there were about 100 convicted politicians or civil servants at the front, but their exact number is unknown.

🔵 What's next? According to Meduza, the authorities do not consider the advance of the war participants to be a temporary campaign. For the 2026 elections, the publication found 1,326 people who declared participation in the elections or passed through the primaries. The main elevator is “United Russia”.