Vladimir Putin Replaces Shoigu as Russia’s Defense Minister in Rare Cabinet Shake-up

In a shuffle of the Cabinet marking the start of his fifth presidential term, Russian President Vladimir Putin removed Sergei Shoigu from his position as defense minister on Sunday.

Following Putin’s dazzling inauguration in the Kremlin, the entire Russian Cabinet resigned on Tuesday by Russian legislation. While Shoigu’s future had been doubtful, most cabinet members were anticipated to retain their positions.

Why Putin Replaces Shoigu as Russia’s Defense Minister?

For the first time since his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin shuffled his national security team on Sunday by appointing an economist to the position of minister of defense. This move demonstrated his resolve to put Russia’s war effort on an economically viable foundation.

Sergei K. Shoigu, the minister, was appointed to lead the nation’s security council by Mr. Putin, allowing him close access to the president but less direct power. This allowed Mr. Shoigu to remain a member of the inner circle. Nikolai P. Patrushev, a longtime KGB comrade of Mr. Putin, will be replaced by Mr. Shoigu. The Kremlin stated that Mr. Patrushev will be moving to another role, which will be disclosed in the coming days.

The Kremlin claimed that Russia’s ballooning defense budget justified appointing an economist to the position and that Mr. Belousov would help make the Russian military “more open to innovation.” The cabinet shifts represented a rare overhaul for Mr. Putin, who usually avoids rash changes, and they could signal a turning point in Russia’s more than two-year war in Ukraine. Andrei R. Belousov is an economist who has served as first deputy prime minister since 2020 and is widely regarded as one of Mr. Putin’s most trusted economic advisers.

Under Pressure:

He removed a guy from command who was partially to blame for Moscow’s numerous early-invasion setbacks, according to both Western and Russian pro-war pundits. Furthermore, he implicitly recognized the value of industrial might in any military success by appointing an economist.

Rumors about Mr. Shoigu’s probable termination began to circulate during the early stages of the conflict when Russian forces seemed ill-prepared for the tenacity of Ukraine’s fight.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the mercenary corps, attempted to overthrow Mr. Shoigu, the defense minister for almost ten years, by staging a mutiny last summer. However, Mr. Putin persisted with Mr. Shoigu, a man who observers said prizes loyalty.

Mr. Putin is indicating a more vital willingness to make adjustments and to demonstrate that Russia has the discipline and economic means to fight a protracted conflict now that the Russian military has won the initiative on the battlefield. Russian authorities’ arrest of one of Mr. Shoigu’s senior deputies last month on suspicion of corruption was a sign of a potential change in the leader’s status.

However, the Russian general staff commander and highest-ranking military official, Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, was another frequent target of opponents of Russia’s war effort. Still, the Kremlin said on Sunday that he would stay in his position.

How much control Mr. Shoigu will have over the battle is unknown. Although his new position is similar to that of the national security advisor to the US president, commentators note that because it does not directly oversee the military or a security agency, it has less power in Mr. Putin’s Russia.

Political Survivor:

Senior member Alexander Baunov of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center argued that Mr. Shoigu was “too big to fall.” However, he went on, Mr. Shoigu would be “without real command powers and a cash box” in his new position.

Before his 2020 appointment as the first deputy prime minister, Mr. Belousov, 65, was employed by the Kremlin as an economic adviser. Members of this group were part of the “economic bloc of the government,” which was praised inside the Kremlin for its quick response to Western sanctions and adequate stabilization of the national economy.

On the other hand, after the Russian military adopted a poor plan in the early months of the conflict and struggled on the battlefield, the government’s security bloc faced accusations.

The nomination of an economist to supervise Russia’s extensive military astonished Russian pundits. Dmitri S. Peskov, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, informed reporters that Mr. Putin decided because of “geopolitical circumstances” that were causing Russia’s military spending to approach that of the Soviet period once again.

Mr. Peskov stated, “This is very important and requires special attention.”

He went on to say that Mr. Putin wanted the modernization of the military to be led by civilians in charge of his defense ministry, implying that Mr. Shoigu was unfit for the position. (Mr. Shoigu’s prior position as emergency minister earned him the rank of general.)

Mr. Peskov states, “The winner on today’s battlefield is the one who is more open to innovation and the most rapid implementation.” Therefore, it makes sense that the president named a civilian to lead the military ministry.

Nevertheless, despite his understanding of economics, Mr. Belousov has comparatively little management experience. From 2012 to 2013, he was the nation’s minister of economic development for just over a year.

Less than a week has passed since Russian President Vladimir Putin took office for a fifth term, and many people anticipated that this would pave the way for a cabinet reorganization. As part of the government change, the whole cabinet of the Russian leader was dissolved. His ministers were renominated to their positions, but not all of them.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Mr. Shoigu has been a mainstay of Russian politics and the longest-serving minister in the history of the independent Russian Federation.

Originating in the Tuva Republic in southern Siberia, he gained widespread recognition as a man of action for over 20 years as Russia’s minister of emergencies, from 1991 to 2012. Whenever a natural calamity struck the nation, he was on TV handling the aftermath, unlike other ministers viewed as paper pushers.

The military incursions by Mr. Putin in Syria in 2015 and Ukraine in 2014 characterized Mr. Shoigu’s time serving as Russia’s defense minister, which began in 2012. Then, in 2022, when the Russian military failed in the early months of the war, Mr. Shoigu became a lightning point for criticism.

In publicly released films, Mr. Prigozhin criticized him for months before this summer, charging him with incompetence in a power struggle that culminated in the mercenary commander’s botched effort to topple him last summer. Later, Mr. Prigozhin passed away in an aircraft accident that US authorities surmised was probably a murder carried out with Kremlin approval.

The shift in leadership that will take place on Sunday would also mean a decline in the prominence of Mr. Patrushev, a KGB veteran and hardliner who has long been seen as a part of Mr. Putin’s inner circle.

What new role he will be offered is unknown. Mr. Putin’s administration is attempting to increase revenue in response to the growing cost of the conflict, one of which is a proposed reform of the nation’s tax structure.

This year, national defense has received about a third of the Russian federal budget—a significant increase over prior years. The Russian economy has accelerated due to the government’s heavy military spending. Still, there is also a risk of overheating because of the constrained labor market, which drives up salaries and inflation.

In April, Timur Ivanov, one of Mr. Shoigu’s senior aides, was detained by Russian authorities and charged with bribery. For a long time, Mr. Ivanov oversaw building projects for the military.

His detention, Mr. Shoigu’s dismissal, and the appointment of a dependable technocrat to lead the defense ministry might be signs that the Kremlin is launching an effort to stop corruption in the military industry after previously disregarding it.

Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov stated of the recently appointed defense minister on Telegram’s messaging app, “Belousov’s first task will be fighting corruption.” “The most important challenge of his life,” he said, was for Mr. Belousov to be the defense minister in a hybrid war against the entire West.