The reshuffle is announced in a post on Telegram from the Federation Council, Tass reports, among other things.
Belousov is now expected to be approved by Russian parliamentarians. He is currently the Deputy Prime Minister.
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That it will be Belousov who takes over the heavy ministerial post is surprising, according to Carolina Vendil Pallin, Russia expert at the Total Defense Research Institute (FOI).
– In my world, it is someone who has mainly worked with financial issues. But it is a capable man who is first deputy prime minister and when (Prime Minister of Russia) Michail Misjustin had corona, he was the one who led the government, she says.
Sergei Shoigu has been Minister of Defense since 2012. He has been an important actor in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and at the same time received much criticism of the war’s development.
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Shoigu gets a new position as Secretary General of the National Security Council, which is also a high post in Russia.
It is difficult to assess what significance the change will have, according to Vendil Pallin.
– It can only be that there is a reorganization of the government, that some ministers are replaced and that Shojgu gets new assignments. You have to remember that all these men are in their 65-70s, she says.
The change comes just weeks after one of Russia’s many deputy defense ministers, Timur Ivanov, was arrested on suspicion of bribery.
According to Vendil Pallin, Russian observers have speculated whether the arrest was part of weakening Shoigu’s position.
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The now-arrested Ivanov is often described as Shoigu’s right-hand man. Hear SVT’s Bert Sundström about the bribery scandal that shook Putin’s inner circle.
Lavrov will remain
In the same vein, Putin has once again appointed Sergey Lavrov as the country’s foreign minister.
Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia’s president for the fifth time earlier in May, following spring’s rigged elections.
The March election allowed no independent opposition and most of the country’s independent media have been driven into exile as Putin has tightened his grip on Russia alongside the war of invasion in Ukraine.
There has been speculation that Vladimir Putin would reshuffle the Russian government in connection with his new mandate.