The recent reshuffle in the government of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has often caused conflicting assessments, but there is an opinion that the appointment of Andrei Belousov as Russian Defense Minister is an advantage for the Kremlin regime.
The newly appointed head of the Russian Ministry of Defense Andrei Belousov is most likely failing. Its purpose is not so much Putin’s brilliant decision as it is further evidence of the Russian leader’s incompetence.
The Hill writes about this.
Belousov himself graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University in 1981. The late 1970s and early 1980s were a period of “high Brezhnevism”—what Mikhail Gorbachev later called the “era of stagnation.”
Although the USSR achieved success in the exact sciences, Soviet economics, like Soviet history and law, were not the theoretically driven disciplines practiced in the West. This may be why liberal Russian opposition economist Vladimir Milov says Belousov is a good mathematician but a bad economist.
Unsurprisingly, Belousov is apparently a proponent of dirigisme, a model of economic development in which the state, rather than the free market, plays a decisive role in decisions on investment, production and consumption. Dirigisme suits Putin's preferences and could help militarize the Russian economy, but the question arises: “What will the cost be for ordinary Russians?”.
“In any case, Belousov will not be able to rid the armed forces of corruption,” writes the author of the material, Alexander J. Motyl.
In addition, the fact that Belousov has very little experience working with bureaucracy in general and with its worst embodiment – the Russian bureaucracy in particular, also does not play into his hands.
“Putin's decision to promote Belousov is not just a mistake; it has all the hallmarks of another of his many strategic mistakes. Russia is embroiled in a war it cannot win anytime soon, if at all, and which costs the country a huge number of dead and wounded,” writes The Hill.
It is noted that the last thing the Russian armed forces need is chaos in the institutions responsible for making decisions on waging war. Of course, this is exactly what Ukraine wants and needs.
Recall that earlier, Advisor to the Head of the Presidential Office, Mikhail Podolyak, explained that Putin’s main goal was to eliminate a potential conspiracy of the generals, behind which Shoigu could stand along with the former Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev. That is why he replaced Shoigu in his position with Belousov.
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