After Putin's successful re-election, the top priority at the moment is to form a new "leading group," which involves the departure and retention of many people. Among them, what has attracted widespread attention from the outside world is Putin's appointment of Russia's new defense minister, in the context of the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, the appointment of the defense minister can be said to be crucial, but Putin made a decision that surprised the outside world.
Andrei Belousov
According to the Russian media TASS news agency, on May 12, local time, Putin specially nominated Andrei Belousov, who had served as the first deputy prime minister of Russia, to serve as the new defense minister, and former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was appointed secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
Let's talk about this Belousov first, he himself is an excellent economist with rich political experience, from the supernumerary adviser to the Russian Prime Minister all the way to the head of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, from 2012 to 2013, he became an assistant to the President of Russia, and then in 2020, he was reused by Putin and was appointed as the first deputy prime minister of Russia.
It can be said that Belousov is a good hand in the economy, but when it comes to using troops to fight wars, he is a bit of a "layman", he himself has not been a soldier for a day, and his service experience is blank, what is Putin's plan to appoint such an official who has been engaged in civilian work for a long time to serve as Minister of Defense?
Russian President Vladimir Putin
This can actually be seen from Russia's economic situation, although the overall trend of steady growth, but military spending is still the bulk of Russia's fiscal spending, since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russia's military spending has increased from 3% of GDP at the beginning to 6.7% of GDP.
You must know that during the period of the bipolar struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union's military spending soared to 7.4% of the economy, and now Russia's military spending is approaching the situation of the year, which is not a positive signal.
As I have said before, Putin's two priorities in the new term are: first, to end the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in a way that is as beneficial to Russia as possible; The second is to stabilize and develop the Russian economy, so military spending is naturally part of the expenditure.
Russian soldiers
As the saying goes, "if you don't know how expensive firewood, rice, oil, and salt are not at home", the Ministry of Defense is responsible for allocating all industrial orders, and a civilian official who understands the state of Russia's domestic economic development will be the Minister of Defense, and the budget should be controlled. Putin himself is quite optimistic about Belousov.
Regarding Putin's nomination, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov explained that it is very important for Russia to introduce the economy of the military sector into the national economy, so it should be open to those who are innovative and ready to introduce innovations in the fastest way to take the lead.
Obviously, developing the economy is Russia's top priority, but at the same time, Putin has not relaxed on the situation on the front line, and the post of chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, who is in charge of strategy and tactics, is still held by Gerasimov, and there is no such thing as a "change of generals."
Gerasimov
At the same time, the Russian prime minister is still held by Mishustin, and Putin has officially signed an order on the 10th approving the structure plan of the new Russian government submitted by Mishustin. Russia's foreign minister is still Lavrov, and the head of Russia's foreign intelligence service is still Naryshkin, so it can be said that many old faces have been retained.
This also reflects the stability of Russia's political situation to a certain extent, so Putin only needs to solve the current two major problems.
As for future economic development, in fact, in the past two years, Russia has explored a general direction, that is, to actively and pragmatically look eastward and expand energy cooperation with Asian partners. Not long ago, Russian media released news that Russia is considering passing through Kazakhstan to build a new natural gas pipeline to China.
Russian Prime Minister Mishustin
If this cooperation is negotiated, it will not only bring considerable economic benefits to Russia, but also meet China's needs for energy import diversification, which is a mutually beneficial and win-win good thing for both China and Russia. At present, Putin has confirmed that he will visit China after his re-election, which means that Russia still attaches importance to the development of relations with China.