Putin has found replacement for Russia's current defence minister

Vladimir Putin has proposed that Andrei Belousov should be appointed as Russia’s new defence minister, replacing Sergei Shoigu.

Source: Federation Council of the Russian Federation; Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency RIA Novosti

Details: The Federation Council (the upper chamber of the Russian parliament) has received a list of candidates proposed by Putin to head up a number of federal ministries and agencies.

Putin has proposed that Andrei Belousov, formerly the first deputy head of the Russian government, should be appointed Minister of Defence of Russia.

Sergei Shoigu has held this office since 2012. 

At the same time, RIA Novosti is reporting that Putin has appointed Shoigu as Secretary of Russia’s Security Council and has dismissed the previous Secretary, Nikolai Patrushev, "in connection with his transfer to another position".

The Russian ruler's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Putin had decided that the Russian Defence Ministry should be headed by a civilian because it "should be open to innovation and advanced ideas".

At the same time, Shoigu, according to Peskov, will oversee the work of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation to integrate the economy of the security bloc into the country's economy.

Peskov also said that Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov would continue his work: "no changes there are expected so far".

The acting heads of Russia’s other security agencies – the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Foreign Intelligence Service, Federal Security Service (FSB) and the National Guard – will retain their positions.

Note: Andrei Belousov, 65, was Russia’s Minister of Economic Development in 2012-13 and an assistant to the President in 2013-2020. He has been the First Deputy Head of the Russian Government since January 2020. 

As a senior official and member of Putin’s inner circle, Belousov has been subject to personal sanctions introduced by Ukraine since 2022 due to Russia’s full-scale invasion. He is also sanctioned by the EU for calling upon Russian oligarchs to continue cooperating with sanctioned Russian banks and supporting the occupation of Crimea, and is on the US sanctions list against Russia’s financial sector. Belousov has been added to sanctions lists in Japan, Canada, the UK and Australia. 

Background: 

Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, has dismissed Viktor Gulevich, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus, on age grounds.

On 8 February, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Valerii Zaluzhnyi as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, replacing him with Oleksandr Syrskyi. 

This article has been updated since publication.

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