Shoigu, a war criminal and Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, is leaving his post, which he has held since November 6, 2012. This is evidenced by the nomination of Andriy Belousov, the leader of the Rashists and the President of the Russian Federation Putin, for this position, who previously held the position of the first deputy head of the Russian government.
Formally, Shoigu was not dismissed, but his replacement was realized thanks to the fact that Putin once again held his own elections and took office again. And this means the technical resignation of the entire current government and the appointment of a new one. And formally, Putin simply did not apply to Shoigu for the post and transferred him to the position of secretary of the National Security Council, where he replaced Patrushev, who was transferred to an unnamed position.
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About such a scenario of events in the Russian Federation, some unofficial sources spoke from time to time, and the reason was the level of dissatisfaction of Putin, which gradually grew due to Shoigu’s failure to fulfill his promises, both at the front and behind the scenes at military plants.
Shoigu
At the same time, the appointment of Belousov definitely came as a surprise, because he has nothing to do with the armed forces. But this is a person who enjoys a fairly high level of Putin’s trust. Because he has been directly in Putin’s “deck” since 2007, when he, while still prime minister, appointed him director of the Department of Economy and Finance of the Russian President’s Office.
And in general, when it comes to Belousov, who recently turned 65 years old, it is necessary to understand that he is an economist and is directly involved in the current Russian macroeconomic model. Because he was an adviser to Russian prime ministers starting with Primakov, and this is the end of the 90s. In 2006, he became the deputy minister of economic development and since then has not left the upper echelons of the Russian government. In 2012-2013, he briefly headed the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, after which he became an adviser to Putin for seven years.
Belousov and Putin
With the appointment of Mikhail Mishustin as the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation in 2020, he took the highest public position – the first deputy head of the Russian government. And it is from it that he is now moving to the formally lower chair of the Minister of Defense.
The reasons for this appointment, most likely, are that Belousov has to improve the work of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation. This is indicated by the fact that in April 2023 Belousov headed the newly created government commission on the development of aviation drones. From that time, he began to actively distribute valuable instructions, to demand the fulfillment of terms and volumes. And now he actually positions himself as the guardian of this industry. And such activity in such a rather narrow field can only be connected with the fulfillment of Putin’s personal assignment.
Belousov
With this in mind, now Belousov’s task will be a much wider range of issues and an attempt to squeeze everything possible out of the Russian military-industrial complex. That is, what was the No. 1 task for Shoigu, what his regular trips to enterprises tell about and his advice on how and what to do better.
It is quite difficult to predict exactly what steps Belousov will take on this path. But he should not be underestimated, because we are talking about a person who was able to hold out under Putin for a long time, remaining a relatively little-known but influential figure.
It is also possible to take a close look at his previous decisions, which can give a clue as to what to expect from him. In particular, in 2018, to fulfill Putin’s populist “May orders”, which provided for a significant increase in social security, to take 500 billion rubles ($8 billion at the time) from Russian oil, chemical and metallurgical companies through a significant increase in taxes. But this was not done instead, also on his initiative, VAT in the Russian Federation increased from 18% to 20% in 2019.
But in 2023, Belousov again proposed the idea of collecting 200-300 billion rubles (about 2-3 billion dollars) from big business, not in the form of a tax, but as a voluntary contribution. But this contribution did not affect the oil and gas and coal industry and was supposed to cover the deficit of oil surplus revenues.
Thus, Belousov, most likely, will also begin to actively “pour” resources from some sectors of the economy into the military-industrial complex. And in any case, replacing Shoigu with Belousov is quite a strong step for Putin, who decided to throw a very valuable figure in the direction of the military-industrial complex. And the importance of the assigned task and the current conditions indicate that Belousov could very well receive carte blanche.
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