Monday 13 May 2024

Putin removes Shoigu as Russian Defense Minister

Putin removes Shoigu as Russian Defense Minister

Putin removes Shoigu as Russian Defense Minister





©Sputnik/Kirill Zykov/Go to the mediabank






President Vladimir Putin has proposed that Sergei Shoigu be replaced as Minister of Defense of Russia by acting First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, the Federation Council said on Sunday evening.







Shoigu has been appointed Secretary of the Russian Security Council.


Senators are scheduled to engage in consultations regarding the nominees put forth by the president during committee sessions on May 13 and during a Federation Council meeting on May 14, as announced by the upper house of the Russian parliament.


No further alterations have been made to the roster of candidates Putin has submitted for cabinet positions. His nominations include Vladimir Kolokoltsev for the position of interior minister, Alexander Kurenkov for minister of emergency situations, Sergey Lavrov for foreign minister, and Konstantin Chuichenko for justice minister.


Denis Manturov, who served as deputy prime minister and head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade during Putin’s last term in office, has been nominated for the position of first deputy prime minister.


Commenting on President Putin's suggestion to nominate the economist Andrei Belousov as minister of defense, presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov emphasized the need to integrate the overall economy of the security sector, particularly the Ministry of Defense, into the national economy.


"It is very important to align the economy of the security sector with the dynamics of the current moment," Peskov told journalists, explaining Putin's decision to appoint Belousov as minister of defense.


Peskov added that Belousov's appointment would not alter the "coordinate system" of the military component of the agency.


"Regarding the military component, this appointment will not change the current coordinate system; the military component has always been the prerogative of the chief of the General Staff, who will continue his activities, and no changes are foreseen in this respect," Peskov told journalists.



So Who is Andrei Belousov?



Andrei Belousov is a Russian economist and government official born in Moscow on March 17, 1959.


He graduated with honors from Moscow State University in 1981 where he studied economics.


From 1981 until 2006, Belousov pursued a career as a researcher with first the Soviet Academy of Sciences’ Central Economic Mathematical Institute and later with the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2006, he was appointed as deputy minister of economic development and trade.


In 2008, Belousov became the director of the Russian government’s finance and economic department.


From 2012 to 2013, Belousov held the office of minister of economic development.


From 2013 till 2020 he worked as the Russian president’s assistant on economic matters.


In 2020, Belousov was appointed as Russia’s first deputy prime minister and he has held this position since.


In his capacity as deputy prime minister, Belousov handled the development of primary vectors of Russia’s social-economic development, coordination of efforts to fulfill Russia’s national development goals and the completion of national projects, matters of unitary financial, credit and monetary policy, and the regulation of financial markets.


From 2022, Belousov also supervised the development of high-tech transportation technologies and intelligent control systems.





















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