Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in his post since 2012, was fired by Vladimir Putin tonight in a surprise reshuffle, days after the Russian president was sworn in for a fifth term in the Kremlin and more than two years after Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Shoigu will be replaced by Andrei Belusov and become secretary of the Security Council, a post previously held by Nikolai Patrushev, who was removed from his post, according to a decree published by the Kremlin.
“On the dismissal of Patrushev Nikolai Platonovich from the position of Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation in connection with his transfer to another job,” as the document states. And this decree takes effect from the date of its signing.
Andrei Belousov is the new Minister of Defense
To his position in the Ministry of Defense, the Russian president appoints Andrei Belusov, according to a message on the Telegram channel of the Council of the Russian Federation. In the previous government, Belousov worked as the first deputy prime minister.
The 65-year-old Belousov held the positions of economic adviser to Vladimir Putin, minister of economic development of the Russian Federation, director of the Department of Economics and Finance of the Government of the Russian Federation, general director of the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasts, while also worked at the Russian Academy of Sciences from 1981 to 2006 (until 1991 – Academy of Sciences of the USSR).
From 30 April to 19 May 2020, during Mishustin’s hospitalization with a coronavirus infection, Belousov served as acting head of the Cabinet.
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