Shoigu out as Russia’s defense minister, Putin taps economist Belousov for post – Times of India
Russian Prez Vladimir Putin of Russia replaced his minister of defence on Sunday with an economist, shaking up his national security team for the first time since his invasion of Ukraine and signaling his determination to put Russia’s war effort on an economically sustainable footing.
Putin kept the minister, Sergei Shoigu, in his inner circle, tapping him to run the country’s security council — a position giving Shoigu close access to the prez but little direct authority.Shoigu will replace Nikolai Patrushev, a former KGB colleague of Putin, whom the Kremlin said would be moved to another position soon.
Andrei Belousov, an economist who had served as first deputy PM since 2020 and long been seen as one of Putin’s most trusted economic advisers, was nominated to become the new defence chief. The Kremlin said Russia’s ballooning defence budget warranted putting an economist in charge, and that Belousov would help make the Russian military “more open to innovation”.
Putin removed from the military’s helm a man whom Russian pro-war commentators and Western analysts alike held partly responsible for Moscow’s many failures at the outset of the invasion. Last summer, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin staged a mutiny to try to remove Shoigu, the defence minister for more than a decade. But Putin, who analysts say values loyalty, stuck with Shoigu. Now, with the military having gained the battlefield initiative, Putin is signalling a greater willingness to make changes and to show that Russia has the discipline and economic capacity to wage a long war. A possible shift in Shoigu’s stature was telegraphed last month, when authorities arrested one of his top deputies on corruption charges.
Belousov, 65, comes from the so-called economic bloc of the govt, which won plaudits within the Kremlin for its agile response to Western sanctions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin made the decision as Russia was once again approaching Soviet-era levels of military expenditure due to “geopolitical circumstances”.