The Russian Senate approved this Tuesday (14) the appointment of economist Andrei Belousov as Minister of Defense, replacing Serguei Shoigu, who held the position for the last 12 years.
“The main task remains, without a doubt, to achieve victory and ensure the achievement of the political-military objectives of the special military operation [como o Kremlin chama a guerra contra a Ucrânia] established by the president. By the way, and I would like to emphasize this in particular, with the minimum number of casualties”, declared Belousov, in his speech in the Senate.
Belousov emphasized that the priority will be to supply new generation weapons, ammunition, drones and radio-electronic warfare equipment to units currently fighting in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that the appointment of a civilian with economic experience to the Ministry of Defense is precisely aimed at integrating defense spending (which today represents almost a third of the federal government’s budget) with the economy. Russia in general and stimulate innovation.
Belousov was born in Moscow and is 65 years old. He graduated in economics from Moscow State University in 1981, still during communist times, and was a researcher at the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, later transformed into the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In 2000, he founded the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasts, the first think tank specializing in macroeconomics in Russia. Since dictator Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999, he held various positions in the federal government, such as consultant and minister of Economic Development.
The Foreign Policy website highlighted that, since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022 (Belousov had already supported the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014), the new head of Defense, as Russian First Deputy Prime Minister , provided valuable services to Moscow’s war effort, such as overseeing the expansion of the production of drones, used on a large scale in the conflict, and proposing a tax on “unexpected” profits from large companies, which injected US$3 billion into the coffers of the State.
In addition to the greater integration between economy and military spending promised by Peskov, the replacement of Shoigu, a long-time ally of Putin, generated speculation that the dictator was dissatisfied with Russia’s performance in the war and that his departure was related to the scandals of corruption in the Ministry of Defense.
At least five people were recently arrested in Russia on accusations of corruption in the ministry, including Shoigu’s former deputy minister, Timur Ivanov, detained in April on suspicion of receiving bribes.
“The appointment of a trusted figure [Belousov] of the president, coming from a different agency, will disrupt the rigid system of corrupt links within the Ministry of Defense”, wrote, in an article for the website Meduza, the nationalist blogger Dmitry Seleznev, who added that “it is obvious [também] that this change is being made with the aim of strengthening the economic component of the military bloc”. (With EFE Agency)
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