The leadership of United russia, the dominant political party in russia, has decided on the top five candidates on its party list for the Duma elections in September 2026. The list will be confirmed at a party congress later this year and includes the head of the russian Ministry of Defense youth organization Yunarmiya, Vladislav Golovin, and war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny, UK Defense Intelligence reports.
The selection of candidates connected with russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine indicates that the Kremlin aims to institutionalise the war as a permanent, defining element of its long-term political vision. It is likely that the Kremlin intends to use these "war influencers" to reinvigorate wider support for the war.
Read more: UK Defense Intelligence Reveals russia's Demographic Collapse Becomes Strategic Problem for Kremlin
Vladislav Golovin in particular is seen to appeal to younger generations through his computer game Squad 22: ZOV, which has sought to popularize russia's war against Ukraine.
Russia's younger generations are almost certainly more detached from Vladimir Putin's gerontocratic elite and its regularly stated imperialist ambitions than russia's older generations, many of whom lived under the expansionist Soviet Union. The russian leadership likely perceive the inclusion of Vladislav Golovin as a step to bridging this gap.
As Defense Express previously reported, on January 13, 2026, a pro-russian MOD focused Telegram channel posted footage showing russian Sirius-82 unmanned surface vessel (USV) remotely deploying anchored surface mines in the Dnipro river, Ukraine.
Read more: UK Defense Intelligence Reveals russia Tests Mine-Laying USVs on Dnipro as Ukraine Dominates Maritime Drones
