New Russian defence minister was close to late Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin

Dossier Centre, a Russian media outlet, has discovered that the new Russian Minister of Defence, Andrei Belousov, oversaw the activities of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former head of the Wagner private military company (PMC), and had "studied the organisation’s development prospects".

Source: Dossier Centre

Details: Dossier Centre's sources say Belousov and Prigozhin "sometimes sat with their arms around each other," and their work meetings were like "family get-togethers".

Belousov's interest in PMCs is further supported by documents that Dossier discovered in Belousov’s email. One of the reports recommended that PMCs should be established "under the full control of the state".

Belousov is also known to have worked on a variety of army-related issues from 2013 to 2020, when he was the president's economic adviser.

According to Dossier Centre's source, Russian leader Vladimir Putin views the position of Defence Minister as a purely administrative one: the minister is responsible for keeping the army supplied and managing the budget and assets. For that reason, Belousov’s appointment was not unexpected, the source said.

Background: On 14 May, Putin issued a decree appointing Andrei Belousov as Minister of Defence, replacing Sergei Shoigu. Belousov had previously served as the first Deputy Prime Minister.

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