Two Types of russia: the kremlin Rewards War and Punishes Peace

The kremlin is methodically building a system in which russian society is divided into two types – the “chosen”  participants in the invasion of Ukraine and the rest of the citizens, doomed to secondary status.

Since 2022, 154 laws have been passed at the federal level alone, creating a “parallel russia” for the military and their families, with its own rules, preferences, and privileges. This policy not only demonstrates the  authorities’ cynical loyalty to those who fought against Ukraine, it openly humiliates those who did not participate in the war, turning them into second-class citizens.

The state duma’s latest decisions only deepen this gap. The new draft law makes it more difficult to fire former military personnel than other employees in case of downsizing. In the field of education, the kremlin has created a caste system: back in 2022, putin signed a law allocating at least 10% of budget places in higher education institutions to children of military personnel, and later the quota was extended to the war participants themselves. In 2025, widows also gained the right to enroll without exams, and before the 2026 campaign, the authorities provided for the possibility of expanding quotas by allocating places for orphans and targeted applicants, which effectively gives families of the military servicemen the opportunity to occupy almost a quarter of places in higher education institutions.

These privileges also extend to the professional sphere. Military servicemen are guaranteed job security for the entire duration of their service, the right to rehabilitation without the risk of losing their job, and double counting of their work experience for pension purposes. They have simplified access to public service, while other citizens are forced to overcome bureaucratic barriers. In the financial sphere, the kremlin “hands out gifts”: credit holidays, debt write-offs of up to 10 million rubles, exemption from mandatory payments, and compensation for half of utility costs. Added to this are housing subsidies, the right to official apartments, and the right to a second free professional education. All this forms a closed system of privileges, where the military and their families receive everything from education and work to housing and financial benefits.

This policy is not accidental or situational. It is a deliberate creation of a caste of “the chosen” who have access to state resources, while the rest of the citizens are pushed to the sidelines. The kremlin demonstratively rewards those who participated in the invasion and at the same time humiliates those who did not fight. The result is a society where a person’s value is determined not by his/her professional or educational achievements, but by willingness to participate in the war.