I'm not familiar with any account of Soviet political officers that portrays them in any sort of flattering light. I always kind of assumed they were basically analogous to US military chaplains, in terms of their position within a unit, only without any of the respect most chaplains get.
That said, I would venture to guess that surviving political officers circa 2000 have been forced to find some real employment within their units, either relegated to some staff job to free up a more qualified officer for front line service, or (having risen to the occasion and proven themselves to be pretty solid guys) taking a more active role of some sort.
Might be a pretty interesting NPC to throw into the mix at some point (after some stereotypical zampolits) some earnest Communist true believer whose faith verges on religion and who's the only thing holding together his unit circa 2000. Could be someone the PCs work with, or someone they have to eliminate or whatever, but should play off their preconceptions consistently (being a sober, incorruptible guy who gives any excess back to the collective, etc etc etc.).
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