In an effort to prepare Russia for an economic war by attempting to make better use of the defense budget and harness more innovation to win in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed a civilian economist as his unexpected new defense minister on Sunday.
After the war lasted for more than two years and claimed many lives on both sides, Putin suggested Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister with a background in economics, 65, take over as defense minister in place of his longtime buddy, 68-year-old Sergei Shoigu.
According to the Kremlin, Putin wants Shoigu, who has been in charge of defense since 2012 and is a trusted friend and ally, to take over as secretary of Russia’s influential Security Council, succeeding Nikolai Patrushev. Shoigu will also be responsible for the military-industrial complex.
Patrushev will start a new, undisclosed employment.
The adjustments, which MPs will almost certainly agree, represent the biggest overhaul of the military command that Putin has carried out since he dispatched tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 for what he described as a “special military operation.”
According to Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, the move made sense since Russia was headed toward a situation similar to that of the Soviet Union in the middle of the 1980s, when the GDP was 7.4% accounted for by the military and law enforcement.
