Sudden change
In an unexpected change, Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced his long-serving defense minister with a seasoned economic adviser, signaling a focus on developing Russia’s war economy more than two years after the war in Ukraine.
Putin brought forward his former economic aide and first deputy prime minister, Andrei Belousov, 65, to take over as defense minister, succeeding Sergei Shoigu, 68, whose position was gently demoted to head the Security Council.
Most of Shoigu’s predecessors under Putin had no military background, but this is the first time Putin has chosen a professional economist to be defense minister.
Reasons related to Shoigu
Since the beginning Ukraine war Rumors have spread about “the incompetence of sacked Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu” and his extravagance in the huge defense budget, according to the Times newspaper.
Since Putin launched his war on Ukraine in 2022, the Times says: “A reliance on mediocrity and incompetence has spread among the army, led by Shoigu (68 years old).
For his part, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps may have pinpointed one of the reasons, when he said that his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, was responsible for “more than 355,000 casualties” among those killed and wounded among “the ranks of his soldiers” during the war in Ukraine.
Shapps wrote on the platform X “Shoigu It caused more than 355,000 casualties among its soldiers and enormous suffering among civilians as part of an illegal campaign in Ukraine“.
Warning message
This dismissal comes after the arrest last April of Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, who the Times says lived for years in blatant extravagance, boasting of his ability to acquire villas, yachts, and Rolls-Royce cars.
The newspaper said that Ivanov was widely accused of bribery, prompting some analysts to say that this was a clear message to his close ally and president, Sergei Shoigu.
The new face
Putin replaced Shoigu with an experienced civilian technocrat, in one of the biggest cabinet reshuffles of the past decade.
Belousov (65 years old) was First Deputy Prime Minister, an economist, and an advisor to Putin.
The Kremlin spokesman said Dmitry Peskov The proposed appointment of a civilian to the position of Defense Minister shows that the role of the minister calls for “innovation.”
He added that Russia became more like the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, when a high percentage of GDP went to military spending.
As a result, he explained, it was necessary to ensure that military spending was better integrated into the overall Russian economy.
“The one who is most open to innovations will be the one who will win on the battlefield,” Peskov stressed.
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