Shoigu’s successor will have 2 main tasks from Putin, – Podolyak

In Russia, economist Andrei Belousov became the new defense minister instead of Sergei Shoigu. This appointment looks rather strange, because Belousov has nothing to do with military defense. But it is with the help of Belousov that Vladimir Putin wants to protect himself.

Adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mikhail Podolyak told < strong>24 Channel that the Ministry of Defense is unlikely to look much more effective with the arrival of Andrei Belousov. The Russian economy in 2024 is increasingly lagging behind in a technological sense and is dependent on its own resources.

Mikhail Podolyak identifies two Belousov's main tasks: first, the corruption index should be lower, that is, there should be fewer dollar multimillionaire generals in Russia, as it seems to Putin, but this is impossible. The second is to protect Putin from the conspiracy of the generals.

When the Wagnerites revolted, Putin realized that Sergei Shoigu was so unpopular among the army that he would not be able to provide military protection for Putin if similar assassination attempts occurred in the future.

Mikhail Podolyak noted that during this rebellion there were various conversations that one of the generals might support Prigozhin. And then Putin realized: if the generals understand that everything is fatal, they can come to an agreement and make claims to Putin.

And Putin doesn’t want complaints to be made against him through the Ministry of Defense. In order to protect himself, he wants to take control of the possibility of financing the army – to make the generals dependent on Belousov. So that they receive everything through an intermediary named Belousov, and not through an intermediary named Shoigu,” emphasized the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

He added that Belousov has been working in the economics sector for 30 years and during this time he had no results, and now he suddenly comes to the Ministry of Defense. At one time, he served as the acting Prime Minister of Russia.

This is a person with a specific background in which there is no no success. He was never considered a creative economist, but everyone says that now there will be a completely different economy in the Ministry of Defense,” Podolyak said.

Personnel purges in Russia: what is known

• After the so-called presidential elections, Vladimir Putin decided to hold radical and unexpected changes in the Russian government.
• So, ex-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was appointed Secretary of the Russian Security Council. He served as Minister of Defense from November 6, 2012, that is, almost 14 years. Shoigu's probable resignation was discussed after first one of his deputy, Timur Ivanov, and then another, Ruslan Tsalikov, were arrested in Russia in connection with corruption in the Ministry of Defense.
• Former secretary Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev was actively called Putin’s successor literally in 2022. Instead, he got a strange position – curator of shipbuilding, 33% of which the Ukrainian Defense Forces had already successfully destroyed. to prime ministers, then to presidents, then to ministers of defense. Instead, Dyumin became an adviser on military industry and sports. And this despite the fact that the Russian team is not currently participating in the World and European Championships.