Russian President Vladimir Putin decided Sunday to dismiss Sergey Shoygu as defense minister in a rare Cabinet shake-up.
Shoygu, a longtime ally of the president, had been holding the post since 2012.According to a decree published on the Kremlin's website, Putin appointed Shoygu as secretary of Russia's Security Council and recommended
Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister who specializes in economics, for his post.
Commenting on Putin's decision, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a civilian official will assume the post of head of the Ministry of Defense
due to the need to introduce innovations in its work.
Belousov
will also address the task of facilitating the integration of the defense economy into the country's economy.
The previous head of the Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, has been appointed to a new position that will be announced in the coming days, Peskov said.
Other ministers responsible for various aspects of security as well as the foreign minister will be the same as in the previous Cabinet, he noted.
Russia's parliament will consider candidates for ministerial posts next week.
Comment: Russia's Deputy Defence minister, allegedly a friend of Shoigu's, was in court
recently on corruption charges. In hindsight, that was the first move to clean up the MoD...
More from
Reuters Shoigu's replacement:
Belousov, 65, graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Moscow State University in 1981 with distinction. He defended his dissertation on "An imitative approach to modeling interrelated processes for the formation and use of working capital."
In 2017, Russian media outlet RBC said Belousov was one of the officials who convinced Putin that the digital economy and blockchain were crucial to the future.
"I can say that what a country with sovereignty should definitely have is the possession of its own meanings. Who are we, where are we from, where are we going? ... We have no other option for our country but to acquire or reproduce this identity," Belousov told RBC in an interview in 2023.
According to RBC, he practised sambo and karate in his youth and did not serve in the armed forces. He is thought to be close to Putin.
Also, a
quote from him on Russia's proxy war against the West:
"By preserving traditional values of the West, which are originally the values of Western Christian European civilization, Russia can become a guardian of these values. This may seem like a paradoxical idea, but it is nonetheless true. Therefore, it is incorrect to say that the West is our enemy."
Updates 14 May 2024TASS is
reporting that the head of the Main Personnel Directorate of Russia's MoD, Yuri Kuznetsov, has now also been arrested. Russian commentator 'Russians With Attitude' (RWA) further
claims that "
millions in cash and gold have been confiscated" from Kuznetsov's home.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin
reports that Nikolai Patrushev and Alexei Dyumin have been appointed as "assistants to the President of the Russian Federation."
RWA
again:
Patrushev is an old school KGB type, head of FSB for a decade, total hawk and hardliner. Dyumin is the godfather of Russia's Special Forces as they currently exist, he was also largely responsible for the Crimean operation. He is also currently the very successful governor of Tula oblast, and I know few people in Russia who are as well-respected among the troops as Dyumin. "Assistants to the President" basically means in touch 24/7 and giving reports that are taken very seriously.
Or do they really not understand the Russian political and parlamentary system ?
I suppose, no. Ditto.