In a surprise reshuffle russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has been replaced by First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, with Sergei Shoigu replacing Nikolai Patrushev as Secretary of the russian Security Council. Nikolai Patrushev has been appointed a Presidential Aide. Sergei Shoigu and Nikolai Patrushev are influential and long-term allies of russian President Putin, the UK Defense Intelligence reports.
Andrei Belousov is a professional economist with no military background. He was First Deputy Prime Minister from January 2020, and prior to that served as a Presidential Aide for economic issues. It is likely that he has been appointed to ensure greater efficiency in defense spending and to ensure closer coordination between defense industries and the needs of the Armed Forces.
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This is likely to prove extremely challenging for Andrei Belousov given the high degrees of corruption in the russian MOD and Armed Forces. Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was arrested in April 2024 on corruption charges, and the head of personnel General-Lieutenant Yury Kuznetsov was arrested on May 14, 2024 on suspicion of involvement in a bribery scheme.
The change of Defense Minister is highly unlikely to have a major immediate impact on the prosecution of the russian war in Ukraine. With Putin also announcing that there will be no changes to senior appointments in the General Staff of the russian Armed Forces the current russian approach to the war is likely to continue.
Read more: The UK Defense Intelligence: russian Deputy Defense Minister Arrested
