Putin has a new government. The president has already presented his new team for the next term and the first thing that stands out is the lack of new faces. The president continues to trust his team to continue leading the country, although he has decided to change the Minister of Defense for a civilian, Andréi Beloúsov, with whom he seeks better management of resources that will allow him to give a boost to the offensive in Ukraine
After the president takes office, the Russian Constitution establishes the dissolution of the outgoing Government and the formation of a new one. On May 10, Vladimir Putin presented to the Duma (Lower House of the Russian Parliament) as a candidate to continue as prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, a technocrat from the Federal Tax Service who is highly valued because, until now, he has been managing to keep the Russian economy despite sanctions. The head of the Government is a key position, since, in the event of death, disability or prosecution of the Head of State, power would fall on him on an interim basis until elections are held. Lawmakers on the same day accepted Putin’s proposal to keep Mishustin in office.
Then the rest of the members of the Executive were presented and, on May 14, the head of the Kremlin finalized the formation of the new Cabinet in which the main novelty was the departure of Sergei Shoigu from the Ministry of Defense and his replacement in that portfolio. by Andréi Beloúsov, a civilian with no previous contact with the Armed Forces.
He is an economist who had been serving as first deputy prime minister and who is considered a man of integrity, a member of the old guard in favor of returning to nationalization and with a reputation as an excellent manager. Belousov’s main mission will be to optimize the available resources to the maximum to equip the troops fighting in Ukraine and thus achieve a boost that accelerates the offensive.
The responsibility of first deputy prime minister (number two in the Government), which Beloúsov has held since 2020, will now be assumed by Denis Manturov, who previously held the portfolio of Industry and Commerce from where he promoted the design and manufacture of “Aurus”, the new limousine. Putin’s armored car, replica of the British Rolls Royce.
“The rise in the status of the head of Industry is due to the importance of guaranteeing Russia’s technological leadership,” said Putin in the presentation of Manturov’s candidacy, who in his speech before Parliament said that “technological leadership in all fields, whether in the manufacture of aircraft, in the manufacturing industry, in the machinery and tools industry, in radio electronics or in the military-industrial complex, it is a powerful engine of economic development.
Nóvak, another strong man
Another strong man in the new Russian Government is Alexánder Nóvak, who assumes most of the tasks that Belousov supervised until his arrival in Defense. Nóvak is another of the ten deputy prime ministers appointed and will also continue to monitor the Ministry of Energy, which he himself directed and which has now been entrusted to Sergei Tsíviliev, husband of a niece of Putin and, until his entry into the Executive, governor of the Siberian region of Kemerovo. Nóvak, who was Deputy Minister of Finance for several years, will also have the economic bloc and anti-sanctions measures under his control. He worked in private companies and at the municipal level.
There are only three women in this Government and Tatiana Golikova, the only deputy prime minister, is the most important. She coordinates social policy. The other two women are Oksana Lut, Minister of Agriculture, and Olga Liubímova, Minister of Culture. Golikova also supervises the pension system and the ministries of Labor and Health, headed by Anton Kotyakov and Mikhail Murashko. Gólikova fell practically all the responsibility during the pandemic, coordinating all the Government’s measures in the fight against Covid-19.
Another important man in Mishustin’s Cabinet is the Deputy Prime Minister and head of the Government Apparatus, Dmitri Grigorenko, who will continue to monitor the progress of the financial sector. He will now also coordinate the “digital development” agenda in the Public Administration and the communications sector. He is credited with extensive experience in implementing top-of-the-line computer systems. Dmitri Patrushev, son of the almighty and until recently head of the Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, has been promoted from Agriculture, now in the hands of Lut (deputy minister previously in that same portfolio), to be one of the deputy prime ministers, in charge of inspect the progress of agricultural and ecological projects.
Continuity
In addition to the ten deputy prime ministers, the new Executive has 21 ministers. Almost all have kept their jobs. The veterans who remain are, in addition to Beloúsov, the head of Diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, Lyubimova (Culture), Kotyakov (Transport) and Murashko (Health), also the ministers of the Interior, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Finance, Anton Siluanov, Economy, Maxim Reshétnikov, Civil Protection, Alexánder Kurenkov, and Justice, Konstantín Chuichenko.
Also maintaining their positions are Alexander Kozlov, Minister of Natural Resources, Alexei Chechunkov, Minister for the Development of the Far East, Maksut Shadayev, Minister of Digital Development, Irek Faizullin, Minister of Public Works, Valery Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education, and Sergei Kravtsov, Minister of Education.
Those who misadvised the top Russian leader that the invasion of Ukraine would be an easy and quick campaign also remain in office: the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB), Alexander Bortnikov, and the head of the Foreign Service of Intelligence (SVR), Sergei Narishkin. The head of the National Guard, Victor Zolotov, also continues.
The new faces, in addition to Tsíviliev and Lut, are the former governor of the Kaliningrad region, Anton Alikhanov, who replaces Manturov at the head of Industry and Trade, the former governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, the new Minister of Transport, and the also former governor of the Khabarovsk region, Mikhail Dégtyarev, in Sports.
Shoigu, in whose ministry several cases of corruption have already been discovered, starting with his right-hand man, Timur Ivanov, has been transferred to the secretariat of the Security Council, but no one knows if the body will have the same influence and power as it had when the Secretary was Nikolai Patrushev, a man who really seems to have been defenestrated, since he has now been named a mere advisor to Putin. Such a measure seems to indicate that he was behind the decision to attack Ukraine, as he also participated decisively in other conflicts (Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbass).
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