President Putin wants to replace Russia’s long-time defense minister | Foreign countries

Sergei Shoigu, who has been the Minister of Defense for more than ten years, is being transferred to the position of Secretary of the Russian Security Council.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin proposes that the country’s first deputy prime minister be appointed as the country’s new defense minister Andrei Belousov. The upper house of the Russian parliament reported on the matter on Sunday.

Belousov has also served as the country’s prime minister for about two months, while the actual prime minister Mikhail Mishustin had corona in April-May 2020.

65-year-old Andrei Belousov is an economist and has no military background. He has been one of Putin’s most influential advisers on economic matters for years.

Belousov would replace Sergei Shoigun, who has served as Minister of Defense since 2012. Putin appoints 68-year-old Shoigu as secretary of the Russian Security Council.

Replaces Šoigun in the mission Nikolai Patrushevfor which a new appointment is also planned.

– Shoigu continues to work in this field (national defense), which he knows well, the Russian state media quoted the Kremlin spokesman as saying Dmitry Peskov.

In accordance with Russian law, the entire Russian government resigned on Tuesday after the inauguration of President Putin’s fifth term in the Kremlin, but most of them are expected to remain in their posts. According to the Kremlin, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, among others, will continue in his job Valery Gerasimov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The Russian parliament is scheduled to approve the new appointments in the coming days.

The reorganization of tasks was announced just as Russian troops have advanced on the battlefield for the first time in months. Despite the defeats previously suffered in the war in Ukraine, President Putin has so far stood behind Shoigu.

At 0:47, the ages of Belousov and Šoigu and information about Patrushev’s new appointment were added to the article. The story was updated throughout at 1:06 am.

Sources: Reuters, AFP, AP, STT