Independent analyst and author of the Telegram channel “Nevybory,” Ivan Shukshin, collected from the Central Election Commission website data on all candidates running in the 2025 elections.
Novaya Gazeta Europe reviewed that dataset and separately identified contenders who listed the Defense Ministry, specific military units, or directly described themselves as participants in or veterans of the “special military operation.”
By those criteria, such candidates are seeking 891 elected posts. The sample was also expanded to include people from adjacent military-related fields: employees of various support funds for “special military operation” participants, military registration staff, workers at military hospitals, and those involved in military-patriotic education.
Including that additional group, the publication calculated that candidates linked to the “special military operation” are seeking a total of 1,455 elected posts. The number of individual candidates is slightly lower, at 1,375, because one person may run for several positions at once.
The publication notes that all further calculations are based on the number of posts being sought, rather than on the number of people themselves.
According to these calculations, the share of candidates connected to the war amounts to 1.47% of the total. Of that, 0.9% are military personnel and other Defense Ministry employees, while another 0.57% come from other war-related sectors.