Last Sunday, Putin, who had just started his new term as president, made a series of changes to his cabinet, the most notable of which was the replacement of the defense minister. Shoigu, who is regarded as Putin's "right-hand man", did not remain as defense minister, but was transferred by Putin to serve as secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, appointing former first deputy prime minister Andrei Belousov as the new defense minister. This appointment is very surprising, after all, now the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is still ongoing, the war on the front line is quite tense, Shoigu, who has served as defense minister for many years, is very familiar with the situation of the Russian army, and also has a very high status within the Russian army, whether it is to formulate tactics, or to transfer troops, or to coordinate strategic resources, Shoigu's advantages are unshaken.
And at a time when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is tight, the Russian army needs to maintain a relatively stable high-level, and "changing commanders" has always been a taboo for soldiers, why does Putin want to do the opposite, is Putin no longer trusting Shoigu, the core staff? It is worth noting that the new defense minister Belousov is an economist and does not have any military experience, so it is awkward to let a layman serve as defense minister, so what are the considerations for Putin's appointment? According to the words of Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, Putin made Belousov defense minister in order to develop the "wartime economy." As a good economist, Belousov is a good hand at economics.
Judging from Peskov's explanation, Putin's appointment seems very reasonable. In fact, in the wartime state, the role of the Minister of Defense is not as important as imagined, for the Russian army, all the power is controlled by Putin, and the specific tactics are formulated by the command of the front, and then reported to Putin for review and approval, and the Minister of Defense mainly plays a coordinating role, so it is not impossible to let Belousov, who was born as an economist, serve as the Minister of Defense. And, as Peskov said, compared to Shoigu, Belousov has the advantage of being familiar and good at developing the economy. At this point in time, the "wartime economy" is particularly important to the Russian army, because it is related to whether the strategic resources needed by the Russian army can be continuously and securely supplied.
So is Putin's move a clever move or a vulgar move? Ukrainian economist Alexei Kushi believes that this is a good move. In Kushi's view, Belousov's previous operation helped the Russian economy withstand the tremendous pressure imposed by Western sanctions, and the Russian economy did not decline, but maintained growth, which can be regarded as a "miracle" and a very important reason why Belousov won Putin's trust. Kuhi believes that Putin let Belousov serve as Minister of Defense, the main task is to solve the problem of insufficient production capacity of the Russian military industrial body, judging from the current trend, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict will not end for a while and a half, this crisis is evolving into a protracted war, if you want to win this conflict, or occupy the peak in the ceasefire negotiations, the Russian army must maintain enough advantages on the front line, the key to this is to see whether the Russian army's supply of weapons and equipment can keep up.
Kushi said that Putin's appointment of Belousov as defense minister is definitely not good news for the Ukrainian army. The author believes that it is too early to judge Putin's appointment, and whether this is a good move or whether Putin digs a hole for himself will have to pass the test of the battlefield and time.