Putin dismissed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and proposed Andre Belouso

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed former Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov as the new defense minister to replace Sergei Shoigu, who was appointed secretary of the country’s Security Council, the Federation Council or Russian Senate reported today.

“Today, on the battlefield, the one who is most open to innovation, most open to implementing (new developments) as quickly as possible, wins,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP.

That’s why “at the current stage, the President has decided that the Defense Ministry should be headed by a civilian,” he said.

In this sense, he emphasized that Belousov, a technocrat expert in economic affairs, had successfully headed the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia in the past and served as an adviser to the President on economic matters for a long time.

Belousov, 65, is under international sanctions through June 2022 over the war in Ukraine.

Shoigu had been the defense minister for the past 12 years and was replaced after 27 months of war, following much criticism from hawks and experts regarding the Russian military’s lack of results on the battlefield.

One of his biggest critics was Wagner’s late founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, who last year repeatedly accused Shoigu of negligence and publicly called for his dismissal.

Tonight the Kremlin issued a presidential decree on the appointment of 68-year-old Shoigu as the new secretary of the Russian Security Council, replacing Nikolai Patrushev, whose new position will be made public later, the presidency promised.

Shoigu’s departure from the Defense Ministry comes just weeks after the arrest of one of his deputies – Timur Ivanov – on charges of large-scale corruption.

According to the latest constitutional reforms, the Minister of Defence, as well as other key portfolio holders, are appointed by the Head of State in consultation with the Senate.

Apart from Belousov’s candidacy, the big news is that Putin proposed to retain Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov, Internal Affairs Minister Viktor Kolokoltsev and Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov in their posts.

Additionally, the President asked the Senate to confirm Sergei Naryshkin and Alexander Bortnikov as heads of the Foreign Espionage Service and the Federal Security Service, respectively.

Putin also proposed to senators that National Guard director Viktor Zolotov reiterate his position.