For just a few seconds on Thursday, Sergei Shoigu was back on Russians’ television screens, sitting in the corner box of a teleconference with Vladimir Putin.
The Russian defence minister, arguably the man most responsible for the floundering war effort in Ukraine, had not been seen in public for 12 days. Nor had the chief of the general staff of Russia’s armed forces, Valery Gerasimov.
Rumours were beginning to circulate that they may have been punished over the bungled invasion, which has failed to capture key Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv or Kyiv and plunged Russia into economic isolation.
Russians had already watched Putin browbeat and humiliate the head of the country’s foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, during a televised meeting over the fate of the Russian-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine.
Journalists have since filed reports on an investigation in the FSB directorate responsible for foreign intelligence, including on Ukraine, and on the arrest of a senior official from Russia’s national guard.
It is unclear if any of those events are related to Russia’s war in Ukraine, an effort that is going according to plan, a Russian foreign ministry official said on Thursday. For many Russians, however, it is apparent that the war is not going to plan, and the expectation among Kremlin watchers is that men such as Shoigu could shoulder the blame.
Within an information vacuum, the rumours about Putin’s anger at his subordinates has also remained just that.
Agentstvo, an independent Russian news website, said a source had told it that Shoigu, one of the most trusted men in the nation according to opinion polling, had heart problems.
By Thursday, the matter was being brought up at a daily press call held by the Kremlin.
“The defence minister has a lot to deal with right now, as you can understand,” Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said during a briefing, denying Shoigu was ill. “A special military operation is ongoing. Certainly, now isn’t exactly the right time for media activities. This is quite understandable.”
Sensing a problem, the Kremlin promptly returned Shoigu to television. The clip released on Thursday was unusual: a security council teleconference with Vladimir Putin, where Shoigu was said to have reported “progress in the special military operation and efforts being made by the military to provide humanitarian aid, ensure security, and restore vital infrastructure on the liberated territories”.
But you wouldn’t know that because the sound was turned off. And Shoigu appeared for just seconds, as his camera was briefly unblocked to reveal him sitting in front of several Russian flags at an undisclosed location. His arm moved, proving it wasn’t just a picture of the defence minister returned to television to dispel rumours about his demise.
And then, just as quickly, he was gone again.
