Russia's ruling party runs Ukraine war veteran among lead candidates

Russia's ruling party on Sunday announced it would run an injured Ukraine war veteran and a television war correspondent, alongside ​the country's foreign minister and the mayor of Moscow, as ‌lead candidates in a parliamentary election due in September.

Speaking at United Russia's pre-election congress, party chairman and former president Dmitry Medvedev said that Ukraine war veteran Vladislav ​Golovin and state television war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny would head ​the party's candidate list.

United Russia has won large majorities in ⁠every national Russian election it has contested, though polling shows it ​is significantly less popular than President Vladimir Putin.

Despite a difficult backdrop of ​an ongoing war and fuel shortages driven by Ukrainian drone strikes, United Russia is likely to secure a large majority, bolstered by Putin's support and a tame ​parliamentary opposition that broadly supports the Kremlin's line on Ukraine.

Putin himself ​won a fresh term as president in 2024, keeping him in office until at ‌least ⁠2030.

Golovin, 29, rose to prominence in state media in 2022 as a naval infantry platoon commander in the battle for the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, during which he was wounded.

Reporter Poddubny was also wounded ​in 2024, during ​fighting in Russia's ⁠Kursk region.

Also among the top five are Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, two of ​Russia's most prominent and popular officials.

Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's ​commissioner ⁠for children's rights, is also included the list.

Though prominent national figures often feature among its candidates, they do not always take up seats in the ⁠lower ​house of parliament, the State Duma.

Putin has ​repeatedly said that he wants veterans of the Ukraine war to enter politics as Russia's ​new elite.

-Reuters