Russian President Vladimir Putin has replaced his defense minister Sergei Shoigu with a civilian, Andrey Belousov, citing the country\u2019s rising military spending and the need for \u201cinnovation.\u201d <\/p>\n
Shoigu had been \u201crelieved\u201d of his post of Minister of Defense by presidential decree and been appointed Secretary of Russia\u2019s Security Council, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday night local time. <\/p>\n
Shoigu would also become Putin\u2019s deputy in Russia\u2019s Military-Industrial Commission, Peskov said, while Nikolai Patrushev, the previous Secretary of the Security Council, would \u201ctransfer to another job.\u201d <\/p>\n
Belousov, who previously served as first deputy prime minister, is a civilian. <\/p>\n
He was selected by Putin because of a need for \u201cinnovation,\u201d Peskov said in a press call, during which he highlighted the ministry\u2019s rising budget, saying it was approaching levels last seen during the Cold War. <\/p>\n
\u201cToday on the battlefield, the winner is the one who is more open to innovation,\u201d Peskov said. \u201cTherefore, it is natural that at the current stage, the president decided that the Russian Ministry of Defense should be headed by a civilian.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a reference to the war in Ukraine, Peskov said that due to \u201cwell-known geopolitical circumstances, we are gradually approaching the situation of the mid-80s when the share of expenses for the security bloc in the economy was 7.4%. It\u2019s not critical, but it\u2019s extremely important,\u201d Peskov said. <\/p>\n
The budget currently amounts to 6.7% of GDP, he said. <\/p>\n
Peskov highlighted Belousov\u2019s previous leadership experience and economic background. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not just a civilian, but a person who very successfully headed the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, for a long time he was aide to the president on economic issues, and was also the first deputy chairman of the government in the previous cabinet of ministers,\u201d Peskov said. <\/p>\n
Peskov added that the new appointment did not signal a shift in Russia\u2019s current military system. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs for the military component, this appointment will in no way change the current coordinate systems. The military component has always been the prerogative of the Chief of the General Staff [Valery Gerasimov], and he will continue his activities. No changes are currently envisaged in this regard,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
In his new role, Shoigu will oversee Russia\u2019s military industrial complex, Peskov said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe is deeply immersed in this work, he knows very well the pace of production of military-industrial products at specific enterprises and often visits these enterprises,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The news follows the arrest last month of one of Shoigu\u2019s close allies, deputy defense minister Timur Ivanov, who was charged with taking a bribe in what was the country\u2019s highest-profile corruption scandal since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. <\/p>\n
Ivanov has been accused of accepting a bribe of 1 million rubles (at least $10,800), according to Russian state media TASS. <\/p>\n
Shoigu has also been criticized for his handling of the invasion of Ukraine \u2013 most forcefully by the Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in the months before his death last year. <\/p>\n
This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Russian President Vladimir Putin has replaced his defense minister Sergei Shoigu with a civilian, Andrey Belousov, citing the country\u2019s rising military spending and the need for \u201cinnovation.\u201d Shoigu had been \u201crelieved\u201d of his post of Minister of Defense by presidential decree and been appointed Secretary of Russia\u2019s Security Council, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}