In Russia, for the first time since 2012, the head of the Ministry of Defense will change. Vladimir Putin proposed former Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov for the post of head of the military department. According to the new rules, his candidacy will be discussed in the Federation Council. Sergei Shoigu will change his job and become Secretary of the Security Council instead of Nikolai Patrushev. RTVI tells what the candidate for Minister of Defense is known for.
Andrei Belousov is still in the status of acting first deputy prime minister. He took the position of First Deputy Prime Minister in 2020 and oversaw national projects, including Unmanned Aviation Systems, as well as the Ministry of Economic Development, FAS, Ministry of Transport and Rosakkreditatsiya. His responsibilities also included developing policies in the field of socio-economic development, a unified financial, credit and monetary policy, as well as state regulation of financial markets, insurance and auditing activities, foreign investment and some other areas.
In May 2020, he also worked as acting prime minister when Mikhail Mishustin was ill with Covid.
Prior to this, Andrei Belousov was Assistant to the President for Economic Affairs (2013-2020), and was a member of the Military-Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation (2014-2020). In 2012-2013 he was Minister of Economic Development, and in 2006-2008 – Deputy Minister, then the current head of Sberbank, German Gref. From 2008 to 2012, Belousov headed the Department of Economics and Finance of the Russian Government.
Since March 2020, Belousov has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russian Railways.
Dmitry Astakhov / TASS
From 2000 to 2006, Belousov was the general director of the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting, on the basis of which in 2005 he published a report on the development of the Russian economy until 2020. In it, Belousov predicted the economic crisis of 2008, as well as a possible economic decline in 2011-2012 and a failure of the public administration system in 2015-2017. The Sistema investigative project discovered that one of the Center’s funding sources was the United States Agency for International Development (UDAID), and Andrei Belousov was listed as a grantee from this organization for 2001.
Belousov graduated from the Second School of Physics and Mathematics and the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University with a degree in economic cybernetics. In 2006 he defended his doctoral dissertation in economics. From 1986 to 2006 he was engaged in scientific work, after which he moved to public service. In 1999, Belousov joined the board of the Ministry of Economy and was a consultant to the heads of government Yevgeny Primakov and Sergei Stepashin, and then a freelance consultant to Mikhail Kasyanov* and Mikhail Fradkov.
Since 1991, Belousov was a member of the Foreign Policy Association group (or the “Group of Immortals”), the basis of which was formed by methodologists Alexander Bessmertnykh, Andrei Belousov, Vyacheslav Glazychev, Simon Kordonsky, Gleb Pavlovsky, Sergei Chernyshev and Pyotr Shchedrovitsky. Invited members were Vadim Tsymbursky, Andrey Klepach, Teodor Shanin and Andrey Fadin. The group called itself a “convergence institute.” In 1995, Belousov published an article “The structural crisis of the Soviet industrial system” in the collection “Other. A Reader of the New Russian Self-Awareness,” the publisher of the collection was Gleb Pavlovsky, and the authors were Pyotr Shchedrovitsky, Simon Kordonsky, Vyacheslav Glazychev and Sergey Kurginyan.
In 2022, Andrei Belousov came under sanctions from the European Union, the United States and other countries.
Economic views
As First Deputy Prime Minister, Belousov consistently advocated strengthening the role of the state in the economy and stimulating its growth through public investment, low interest rates and soft fiscal and credit policies.
Belousov consistently advocated the introduction of additional taxes on windfall income for Russian billionaires.
President of the Center for Infrastructure Economics Vladimir Kosoy, in a conversation with RTVI, emphasized that Belousov is a “pronounced statist.” “At the same time, to many outside observers he may look like an “economic liberal.” In fact, he is not an economic liberal, he belongs to academic economists,” says Kosoy.
“His views are most consistent with the ideas, relatively speaking, of implementing the USSR State Planning Committee, but at a new level – using digitalization and modern economic management. That is, he holds views about the very serious role of the state in economic management,” emphasized Vladimir Kosoy.
Author of the Fairdaily telegram channel Maxim Tovkaylo calls Belousov is a supporter of Keynesian economic theory. “Its essence is the active participation of the state in managing aggregate demand, including through the growth of government spending. Belousov defends the principle of “more money from the budget and the cheapest possible loan” throughout his career,” writes Tovkailo.
Financial Times calls Belousov “a champion of statist industrial policy” and a “technocrat”. His appointment as defense minister, according to the publication, indicates that Vladimir Putin wants to tighten control over record defense spending.
Political telegram channel “Nezygar” assumesthat Belousov’s main task at the head of the Ministry of Defense will be “optimization of costs and implementation of his conceptual plans,” but not on the scale of the entire economy, but on the scale <…> military-industrial complex.”
“Belousov, who has extensive experience in managing the country’s economy, is a supporter of strengthening state regulation: it is obvious that, given the current situation in the Northeast Military District, the neo-Keynesian methods he proposes can be successful and will provide a multiplier effect in terms of the development of the military-industrial complex, including in metallurgy, as well as in other sectors of the state defense order,” writes Nezygar.
“Putin’s Man”
The reputation of “Putin’s man” was cemented for Andrei Belousov in 2008, when he joined the government apparatus, writes The Bell*. According to one of the publication’s interlocutors, in 2014 Belousov was allegedly the only person from Putin’s economic circle who supported the annexation of Crimea to Russia.
Mikhail Metzel / TASS
In 2008-2012, Belousov worked in the government apparatus under the leadership of Sergei Sobyanin, and then Vyacheslav Volodin, writes Telegram channel Fairdaily (Maxim Tovkaylo). The future defense minister allegedly maintained good relations with both.
In 2011, Belousov allegedly helped Vladimir Putin get re-elected for a third term – it was Belousov, according to Fairdaily, who came up with the idea of creating the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, which became part of Putin’s election program. After his re-election, Putin appointed Belousov as his economic assistant.
Belousov is also called “one of the most church-going people among the highest officials.” Like Mikhail Mishustin and Sergei Kiriyenko, Belousov is called a member of the Diveyevo brotherhood. In addition, Belousov is on the board of trustees of the So-Edinenie foundation, which helps people with hearing and vision impairments.
As Minister of Defense
Andrei Belousov, like his predecessors Sergei Shoigu and Anatoly Serdyukov, came to the Ministry of Defense without serving in the army and without experience working in the Ministry of Defense. The last time a career military man, Igor Sergeev, became the head of the Ministry of Defense was under Boris Yeltsin.
During his speech at the Federation Council, Belousov focused on working with social security for military personnel. He noted that it is necessary to work to provide participants in the military operation with housing, payments to civilian personnel in military units and medical care. He emphasized that the Ministry of Defense needs to solve the problem of bureaucracy associated with confirming the benefits of military personnel.
* included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of foreign agents
