Replacement Of Def Min Biggest Shakeup In  Leadership Since Start Of War

The replacement of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu after 12 years in the position comes as the biggest shakeup of Russia's military establishment during the coure of the entire war in Ukraine. Shoigu, a civil engineer by training, has been replaced by another non-military man in the form of economist and former Deputy PM Andrei Belousov. Shoigu will move to become secretary of the National Security Council, where he replaces Nikolai Patrushev.

• Patrushev's replacement was another very unexpected move from Putin, given that Patrushev was viewed by observers as one of Putin's closest allies in the NSC, and an uber-hawk on security issues.
• Other senior figures, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov remain in post, with Shoigu the most high-profile replacement in the post-inauguration reshuffle so far.
• To replace two such senior military figures at the same time as Russian forces launch a major offensive in the Kharkhiv oblast has been viewed by some observers as a sign of "serious instability right in the heart” of the Putin gov't. While the scale of their progress is disputed, five Russian battalions are either near or in the border town of Vovchansk on Ukraine's northern border with Russia.
• Reuters: "The proposal to appoint one of the main court economists and the main state minister in the economic bloc to head the Defence Ministry may mean that Putin is planning to win the war with the defence industry plants and international markets," said Alexander Baunov, a former Russian diplomat who is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center."