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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Nicholas Cecil

Putin's new defence minister is a 'puppet' and a sign of long Ukraine war plan

Vladimir Putin Sergei Shoigu Andrei Belousov Ukraine United Kingdom Russia Dmitry Peskov United States Nikolai Patrushev Yevgeny Prigozhin

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.

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