Putin's plan to turn bloodthirsty veterans into Russia's political elite

MoscowWar criminals elevated to public office. Vladimir Putin is determined to militarize the Russian administration and has no qualms about opening its doors to soldiers accused of murder. In an attempt to privilege officers who have fought in Ukraine and further tie their fate to that of the conflict, the Russian president announced in early 2024 the creation of the Time of Heroes program, designed to train war veterans as civil servants. All of them, destined to become, according to Putin, "Russia's true elite."

The course, which has just launched its second edition, is organized exclusively at the federal level, with just over eighty places, from which at least 27 civil servants have already graduated. Meanwhile, more than 46,000 participants in the so-called "special military operation" have applied to enter similar regional programs. Each region has been tasked by the Kremlin with preparing between 30 and 60 veterans to work in government agencies by the end of the year, ultimately reaching a total of 2,500 annually.

Among these new members of the administration, there are those who arrive with a record of service that is at best murky. This is the case of several officers decorated as Heroes of Russia who were allegedly involved in the Massacre in the Ukrainian city of Butxa during the Russian occupation. For example, Nursultan Mussagaleyev, accused by Ukrainian intelligence services of torturing and murdering civilians, is now a district chief in the Orenburg region in the south of the country and has even participated in public events alongside Putin.

Major Yuri Abayev, who was involved in the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Zaporizhia in 2024, according to Kiev intelligence, was appointed Minister of Labor and Social Development in North Ossetia. Meanwhile, in Yacutia (Siberia), Andrei Grigoriev, famous for a video in which he is seen killing a Ukrainian soldier in hand-to-hand combat, a feat that earned him a Hero of Russia star, has been studying to become a civil servant since this year.

More recently, there was the case of Igor Yurgin, former commander of an assault squad made up of prisoners, heir to the Wagner group, whom his subordinates criticized for using them in so-called "flesh raids," that is, suicide attacks against the enemy without considering the enormous human losses. As a reward, Yurgin has been promoted to none other than head of the Department of Early Childhood Education at the Russian Ministry of Education.

Civilian rehabilitation, however, does not always keep them safe. Zaur Gurtsiev, deputy mayor of Stavropol, in the far southeast of Russia, was the victim of an attack on May 29. A man he had met through a dating app approached him, and at that moment, an explosive device he was unwittingly carrying on him detonated. Gurtsiev, known as "the Butcher of Mariupol," was responsible for the airstrikes during the siege of this Ukrainian city at the beginning of the war, in which thousands of people died.

A Duma full of veterans

Putin not only aspires to the war heroes fill not only the administration, but also Parliament. According to journalist Farida Rustamova, the Russian leader wants veterans to occupy 100 of the 450 seats in the State Duma in the 2026 elections, and United Russia, the president's party, must become the platform from which the new political class germinates.

And, for now, things are moving forward, judging by the data provided this week by the party: 837 war veterans nominated by United Russia have been elected as representatives at all levels of the administration throughout 2025, while the previous year there were 312 without the previous year. Last Sunday, candidates from Putin's party who had fought in Ukraine won.

Furthermore, one of the re-elected governors had previously led the launch of the Time for Heroes program. Maria Kostiuk, from the Jewish Autonomous Province, a territory in the Russian Far East, lost her son on the Ukrainian front and was quickly appointed to head a foundation for families of dead combatants, overseen by Putin. Her meteoric rise has taken her to the highest office in the region in just a few months, although, according to the independent media outlet,Agentstvo, his victory with 83% of the vote was the most anomalous in all of Russia, as 150 of the 166 polling stations in the constituency show signs of electoral fraud.

According to experts, the militarization of institutions is intended to prevent the so-called "Afghanistan syndrome." After the Soviet invasion of that country in the 1990s, many of the veterans ended up turning to organized crime. However, beyond the doubts surrounding the criminals' abilities for civil administration, the real challenge for Putin will be the thousands of rank-and-file soldiers, some of them ex-convicts, without a suitable career path, who will have great difficulty adapting to peace after years of waging war.