Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands during a meeting in Vladivostok, Russia, in April 2019. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has tapped a Ukraine war veteran to lead one of Russia’s regions, the highest post so far given to a participant in the invasion, as the leader seeks to forge a “new elite” of patriotic workers and soldiers.

In an orchestrated reshuffle, Putin replaced two governors on Monday, appointing interim leaders in the Rostov region, a key area bordering Ukraine and home to the military command center for the war, and in the Tambov region, a producer of agricultural and consumer goods in southern Russia.

For Tambov, Putin chose Eugene Pervyshov, former mayor of a large southern city who signed up in 2022 to fight in Ukraine.

After several months of service, he was selected to participate in Putin’s “Time of Heroes” program, aimed at transforming veterans into influential civil servants.

Pervyshov’s appointment is an example of how the Kremlin presents the war as an opportunity for society to replace oligarchic elites with patriotic workers and soldiers, and as a tool to advance its political career.

It is also part of the Kremlin’s efforts to attract more men to the front lines, increasing the number of entrepreneurs by dangling the possibility of access to power and the promise of prestigious jobs in peacetime, according to the experts.

Last month, the Kremlin announced the appointment of 10 graduates of the program to various sectors of government, including as presidential envoys, regional ministers and directors of defense companies.

“The time of heroes has arrived in Tambov,” Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, wrote on his Telegram blog on Monday, welcoming the appointment. “You wanted a change of elites? It’s here! However, I admit that many thought it would turn out differently. But history has chosen this path for Russia!

Analysts critical of the Kremlin say most of the appointees are just figureheads with little political clout and that opportunities for soldiers after the war are actually limited.

Those named so far have little in common with the majority of contract soldiers, who mostly join for financial gain, or with conscripts, who regularly complain of being poorly treated by their commanders. The bar for admission to the program is also quite high – among the stated requirements are higher education and “experience in managing people”.

“In reality, representatives of the same clans of the nomenklatura are named, simply with an updated biography,” wrote Nezygar, an influential Telegram channel critical of the Kremlin.

Pervyshov served in the BARS Kaskad, an elite reserve unit that normally stays away from the front lines, according to British intelligence.

“Enlistment in BARS Kaskad likely allows Russian elite figures to circumvent legal requirements for Russian military service with guaranteed security and potentially curry favor with the Kremlin,” the British Ministry of Defense said in its assessment this year.

Russian investigative media outlet Important Stories reported that officials serving in the unit can leave when they need to and do not face real combat danger.

Another alumnus of the Time of Heroes program is Artem Zhoga, who took over as leader of the pro-Russian Sparta Battalion in Ukraine’s Donbass region after his son was killed in combat. He became the epitome of the integration of pro-Russian figures from the occupied Ukrainian territories into Russian power structures.

In 2023, Putin used Russian-born Zhoga to announce his upcoming presidential bid. In a carefully orchestrated television broadcast, Zhoga told state media reporters that he had begged Putin to run on behalf of soldiers fighting in Ukraine — and that the president had agreed. Zhoga is now Putin’s envoy to Russia’s Ural Federal District.

Pervyshov said that as part of the program he interned at Moscow City Hall and the Sakhalin regional government and participated in an expedition to the North Pole. Today, Pervyshov became the first participant in the war to govern a region of Russia.

“This is yet another false reality that the Kremlin constantly creates. It is designed to convince as many representatives of the population as possible that they should go to war, that it is respectable and prestigious, so think: ‘Maybe they will also appoint me later'”, a said Abbas Gallyamov. a Russian political analyst and former Putin speechwriter.

Gallyamov now lives in Israel and last year the Russian Justice Ministry declared him a “foreign agent.”

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, described the program as “part of the Kremlin’s efforts to militarize Russian society and government.”

The program is widely publicized by state television propagandists, such as Vladimir Soloviev.

“All roads must be open to you, both in military and civilian life. … Everyone who wants to succeed will get it and we will help them,” Soloviev said in an ad, set to dramatic music, depicting men in uniform taking MBA-style courses in modern facilities.