Patrushev Becomes Putin Aide, Bolstering Administrative Ranks

The Kremlin has confirmed that Nikolai Patrushev, until the weekend the secretary of the National Security Council, will become an aide to President Vladimir Putin, alongside Putin's former bodyguard and Governor of Tula Oblast Alexei Dyumin. Patrushev, seen as a very close ally to Putin and an uber-hawk on foreign policy matters, was shifted from the NSC role to be replaced by outgoing Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

• On Patrushev, the Kremlin states that he will oversee shipbuilding 'and perhaps other areas too', adding that 'shipbuilding is a strategic sector, very big and very difficult'. Dyumin will oversee the defence industry. On Shoigu, Kremlin spox Dmitri Peskov claims that 'he has a wide range of task in his new role that are of great importance to Russia'.
• Talking up the administrative duties of these newly-appointed aides fits in with the appointment of economist Alexei Belousov as defence minister, with Putin's aim being the sustaining of Russia's war machine.
• As The Spectator notes, "The defence minister, [...] is essentially an administrator, there to ensure that the military has the men and materiel it needs. [Belousov] is not one of the ultra-nationalist hard-liners, but he has long championed a greater state role in the economy. As Putin’s Russia becomes increasingly built around the invasion of Ukraine and its wider confrontation with the West, with no end in sight, Belousov’s experience will be crucial to making the economy an essentially warfighting one."