Putin Replaces Protection Minister in Uncommon Cupboard Shake-up

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia changed his minister of protection on Sunday as he shook up his nationwide safety workforce for the primary time since his invasion of Ukraine.

Mr. Putin saved the minister, Sergei Ok. Shoigu, in his inside circle, tapping him to run the nation’s safety council.

Andrei R. Belousov, an economist who served as first deputy prime minister within the final authorities and beforehand was the financial improvement minister, was nominated to change into the brand new protection chief.

It’s unclear how a lot authority over the warfare effort Mr. Shoigu will retain.

The Kremlin additionally stated that Nikolai P. Patrushev, a former Ok.G.B. colleague of Mr. Putin who has headed the Russian safety council for 16 years, can be moved to a different place to be introduced within the coming days.

Russian commentators rapidly expressed shock over the appointment of an economist to supervise Russia’s sprawling army. The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, informed reporters that Mr. Putin made the choice due to the sharp rise within the protection price range over the past two years.

“It is vitally vital to suit the economic system of the safety bloc into the nation’s economic system, to suit it in in order that it corresponds to the dynamics of the present second,” Mr. Peskov stated.

It was a uncommon shake-up for Mr. Putin, who values loyalty and caught by Mr. Shoigu regardless of Russia’s army failures early within the warfare and the embarrassing mutiny final summer season by the mercenary chief Yevgeny V. Prigozhin.

The attainable shift in Mr. Shoigu’s stature had been signaled final month, when the Russian authorities arrested one in every of his prime deputies on corruption expenses. His alternative with Mr. Belousov — lengthy seen as one in every of Mr. Putin’s most trusted financial advisers — additionally highlights the Kremlin’s success in conserving the Russian economic system afloat within the face of Western sanctions.

The change comes lower than per week after Mr. Putin was inaugurated to his fifth time period as Russia’s president. The Russian chief’s whole cupboard was dispersed as a part of the federal government transition. Many however not all of his ministers have been renominated to their posts.

Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian common workers and the highest-ranking Russian army officer, will stay in his put up, the Kremlin stated.

The change probably spells lowered affect for Mr. Shoigu, the longest-serving minister within the historical past of the unbiased Russian Federation and a fixture of Russian politics because the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Initially from the Tuva Republic in southern Siberia, Mr. Shoigu developed a nationwide profile as a person of motion by serving as Russia’s emergencies minister for greater than 20 years, from 1991 to 2012. He might repeatedly be discovered on tv responding to the nation’s pure disasters, in distinction to different ministers portrayed as paper pushers.

Mr. Shoigu’s tenure as Russia’s protection minister, starting in 2012, was comparatively uneventful till Mr. Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. The longstanding minister rapidly turned a lightning rod for criticism because the Russian army faltered within the early months of the warfare.

For months early final yr, Mr. Prigozhin railed towards him in movies posted on the web, assailing him for incompetence in a struggle for affect that in the end ended with the mercenary chief making an attempt to oust him by pressure in a failed rebellion final summer season. Mr. Prigozhin later died in a mysterious aircraft crash.

Ideas that Mr. Shoigu’s affect was waning gave the impression to be confirmed final month, when one in every of his prime deputies, Timur Ivanov, was arrested by Russian authorities and accused of bribery. Mr. Ivanov had lengthy been in command of army development tasks.

The management modifications Sunday additionally might sign extra muted affect for Mr. Patrushev, a hardliner with a Ok.G.B. background who has lengthy been seen as a member of Mr. Putin’s inside circle.

However his son, who had been serving as Russian agriculture minister, was elevated to vice premier within the new authorities, growing his energy inside the agriculture sector.

It’s unclear what new place will probably be supplied to Mr. Patrushev, who ran the Federal Safety Service, the post-Soviet incarnation of the Ok.G.B., for Mr. Putin’s first two phrases earlier than changing into head of the safety council. Mr. Patrushev’s new put up will probably be introduced within the coming days, Mr. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, stated.