Shoigu Dismissed
With a new swearing-in, we have a new cabinet in Moscow. I realize, in some ways, Russia is a somewhat closed black box, so anything I say is my best guess. However, this is not surprising. Signals that he was on the way out have been there for months. The arrest of his assistant secretary of defense for corruption was a huge tell.
Another detail is that you may have seen in the American press headlines that he is getting replaced with a civilian. Ok, that’s nice; Shoigu is a civilian. The secretary of defense in Russia gets an instant rank of Marshall.
So first, the take from Abbas Gallymov through MO:
Putin dismisses Sergius Shoigu from the post of Defense Minister amid the scandalous arrests of his entourage. The ideologist of the war, Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, was also fired. They were not forgiven for the failure of the blitzkrieg and the protracted SVO.
Putin’s former economic aide will become the new minister. Already former First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov is a long-term assistant to Putin and an opponent of the “system liberals”, who advocated for the nationalization of the economy and increased taxes on business.
Here is how political scientist Abbas Gallyamov (recognized as a foreign agent) explained the president’s logic in the event of Shoigu’s dismissal to…