OPINION: A New Battle in the Kremlin

A new power struggle has erupted between Defense Minister Andrei Belousov and Kremlin strategist Sergei Kiriyenko. At stake are up to 150 parliamentary seats—and the question of who truly holds power in Russia.

The Elections Turn Turbulent

Ahead of the September Duma elections, the Kremlin has promised its soldiers a reward: up to 150 veterans of the war in Ukraine are to be placed on the electoral list of the ruling party, United Russia – safe parliamentary seats as compensation for their service.

In  Russia, compiling such lists is not a democratic process. It is not voters who decide who enters parliament, but the presidential administration. For years, this monopoly has belonged to one man: Sergei Kiriyenko, once briefly prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin, now Putin’s chief domestic political strategist.

But this time, things unfolded differently. At a closed meeting to prepare for the elections, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov openly attacked Kiriyenko: the up to 150 names on his list, he said, were not real fighters but bureaucrats from Kiriyenko’s network who had only spent a few months at the front as a formality.

Belousov then offered to compile his own list – with real soldiers.

This is an unprecedented development. A figure who previously had nothing to do with shaping parliamentary composition is suddenly intervening in the process. Belousov’s power has grown alongside the war, and his ambitions now appear to extend far beyond the Defense Ministry.