Vladimir Putin was accused by Britain of putting another “puppet” in as defence minister as he moved to appoint an economist to the role in a sign that he is planning for a long war in Ukraine.
The Russian president caught military experts by surprise with his plan to bring in Andrei Belousov, a 65-year-old former deputy prime minister who specialises in economics, to replace his long-term ally, Sergei Shoigu, 68, as defence minister.
In London, the UK’s Defence Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted: “Sergei Shoigu has overseen over 355,000 casualties amongst his own soldiers & mass civilian suffering with an illegal campaign in Ukraine.
“Russia needs a Defence Minister who would undo that disastrous legacy & end the invasion - but all they’ll get is another of Putin’s puppets.”
The appointment of Belousov was being seen as an admission that Russia forces were not going to quickly win the war in Ukraine and instead aimed to dig in for an economic war, in the hope that the West will eventually tire in its support for Kyiv.
Putin wants Shoigu, in charge of defence since 2012 and a long-standing friend and ally, to become the secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council, replacing incumbent Nikolai Patrushev, and to also have responsibilities for the military-industrial complex, the Kremlin said.
Patrushev will get a new, as yet unannounced, job.
The changes, certain to be approved by parliamentarians, are the most significant Putin has made to the military command since sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 in what he called a special military operation.
His invasion swiftly floundered as his forces failed to seize Kyiv within days as planned.
They were then forced to retreat to eastern Ukraine where the conflict has been bogged down, with Russian units making limited gains but suffering heavy losses.
A delay in supplying more weapons from the West, mainly by the US, has allowed Putin’s army to gain the upperhand in recent months.
But Ukrainian forces are expected to get new military equipment within weeks to thwart Russian advances.
The first F-16 fighter jets being supplied by the West are expected to arrive by June or July.
The conflict has also seen the increased use of drones, including long-range attacks by both sides.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the changes in Putin’s top team made sense because Russia was approaching a situation like the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, when the military and law enforcement authorities accounted for 7.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
That, said Peskov, meant it was vital to ensure such spending aligned with and was better integrated into the country’s overall economy, which was why Putin now wanted a civilian economist in the defence ministry job.
“The one who is more open to innovations is the one who will be victorious on the battlefield,” Peskov said.
Belousov, a former economy minister known to be very close to Putin, shares the Russian leader’s vision of rebuilding a strong state, and has also worked with Putin’s senior technocrats who want greater innovation and are open to new ideas.
Belousov has played an important role in overseeing Russia’s drone programme.
The shake-up, which caught the elite off-guard, indicates Putin is doubling down on the Ukraine war and wants to harness more of Russia’s economy for the war after the West sought, but failed so far, to sink the economy with sanctions.
Russia’s economists have so far largely ensured economic stability and growth despite the toughest sanctions ever imposed on a major economy, even though the failings of the Russian military were laid bare shortly after the invasion.
“The proposal to appoint one of the main court economists and the main state minister in the economic bloc to head the Defence Ministry may mean that Putin is planning to win the war with the defence industry plants and international markets,” said Alexander Baunov, a former Russian diplomat who is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
“The winning strategy in this case will not be mobilisations and breakthroughs, but slow pressure on Ukraine with the superior power of the Russian military-industrial complex and the economy as a whole, which, apparently, is supposed to be made to work more effectively for the front and rear.”
The shake-up gives Shoigu a job that is technically regarded as senior to his defence ministry role, ensuring continuity and saving Shoigu’s face. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s General Staff and someone with a more hands-on role when it comes to directing the war, will remain in post.
Shoigu was heavily criticised by Russian military bloggers for a series of retreats the Russian military was forced to make in 2022. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group and one of Shoigu’s fiercest critics, led an abortive mutiny he hoped would topple Shoigu last year before agreeing to call it off. Prigozhin was later killed in a plane crash.
