Russian strongman Vladimir Putin (above, right) on Sunday fired Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (above, left). Just last year, Shoigu was the target of a Russian coup attempt by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin (below, right), who was quickly killed.
General Sergei Shoigu was with his longtime ally President Vladimir Putin reviewing troops on Moscow’s Red Square last week. The announcement of his dismissal was made on Sunday night, and he was placed on Russia’s Security Council, where he is joined by fellow Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and prime minister who has apparently extended his life. We will be merging.
But given that Shoigu’s dismissal came just weeks after one of Shoigu’s top aides, Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, was arrested and imprisoned on bribery charges, the new job was a soft landing. The impression remains that this is merely superficial. As mentioned above, observers interpreted the arrest as a move against Shoigu himself, who was the target of last year’s Prigozhin coup for corruption and military failures.
In 2023, World War I-style trench warfare returns to Europe in Ukraine.https://t.co/fshqnlRBQX
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 31, 2023
Half Siberian, half Tuva (Outer Mongolia) and half Ukrainian, Shoigu is a trained engineer who has assumed ultimate military responsibility for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
President Putin will appoint economist Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov (bottom left) to replace Shoigu.
Kremlinology is an inexact science, and it’s always difficult to understand Putin’s opaque motives, but rumors surrounding the move suggest that Putin’s dismissal is in response to the progress of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. It has been suggested that this is an expression of dissatisfaction. The decision to appoint an economist as the next military leader may reflect the extent to which the war is having an impact on Russia’s economy.
Indeed, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking on behalf of the Kremlin, said the changes reflected the view that Russia’s military needs to “embrace innovation.” “We should be “completely open” to advanced ideas and the establishment of conditions for economic competitiveness,” Peskov said, adding that the internal view that war could be too costly suggested.
Putin announces new nuclear threat at Moscow Victory Day parade https://t.co/6DKRCVphUI
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Peskov praised Belousov, saying he had “previously led Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development very well.” “Belosov will be tasked with modernizing the Russian military,” another spokesman said.
Russian state media has also telegraphed the possibility of a “reshuffle” of the military leadership, including the recently appointed “Armageddon General” Valery Gerasimov, Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, and is also calling for a “reshuffle” of the military leadership to speed up the process. I took up this post. Ukraine war.
Although President Putin has so far stuck by him, Shoigu has become a lightning rod for criticism from within Russia for the act of invading Ukraine, which turned into a meat grinder in the trenches rather than a rapid attack on Kiev and the eastern regions. It had become. War and execution by drone. In June 2023, the late chieftain Evgeny Prigozhin led the Wagner Group’s rebellion against the government, driving a convoy of military vehicles into Russia from Ukraine and making it more than half the distance to Moscow.
Prigozhin blamed Shoigu for Russia’s military failures in Ukraine and demanded his removal, but the revolt failed and within weeks Prigozhin, along with several members of Wagner’s leadership, died in a mysterious plane crash and was assassinated. Speculation was rampant.
President Putin claims that Wagner chief Prigozhin accidentally committed suicide by playing with a grenade while drunk during the flight. https://t.co/WSP1WvLFBe
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 6, 2023
