He is not a soldier, he is not from the ranks of the FSB, and he is not a native of Leningrad, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who reappeared today after 13 days of silence, albeit only at the top left square of the Council’s security screen opened on Vladimir Putin’s desk. A few frames not enough to silence rumors of his departure, a notable absence given his leading role in promoting the war against Ukraine.
The figure of Shoigus had gained in importance in recent years as a result of Moscow’s military successes in Crimea and Syria. And at least until shortly after February 24, despite his anomalous CV, he could count on a great audience in the Kremlin. Secretary of Defense since 2012, Shoigu, 66, had previously been Minister for Emergencies since the 1990s, a position that earned him a reputation as a problemsolver, decisionmaker and ubiquitous, with a presence well publicized by an army of people, built .
He comes from Tuva, the small federal republic on the border with Mongolia, has a degree in engineering and has never been a soldier. But in addition to wearing a uniform, since he was Minister of Emergency Situations and transitioned to Defense, he forced staff officers to wear one and reintroduced the 1945 Soviet uniform known as the “uniform of victory.”
He promoted the hitech revolution of defense, established the Cyber Operations Command, and brought together aerospace forces in the Aerospace Forces. The military successes in the 10s of the 2000s paved the way to ever higher appropriations. And the sanctions have brought the oligarchs closer to defense in an effort to build a new militaryindustrial complex. In recent years, billionaires losing capital due to Western measures have been offered lucrative deals in the sector.
Shoigu, cochairman with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia’s united party in last September’s parliamentary elections, which often hunts alongside Putin in remote parts of the country, has been able to take advantage of the space opened up by the numerous flops by Russia’s secret services, the revealed in the operations to poison Sergei Skripal in Salisbury and against Navalny in Siberia are omissions that have completely changed the balance of power in Moscow.
“This campaign was defined from the start as an oldfashioned projection of military might.” By giving the military such a crucial role, “Putin last year consolidated a dramatic shift in the security hierarchy: if early in its leadership the military was not involved in policymaking and was subordinate to the services, in recent years the armed forces have acquired a new meaning not only in relations with neighboring countries, but also in the definition of politics, “wrote two Russian analysts specializing in intelligence, Andrei Soldierov and Irina Borodan, recently in Foreign Affairs. Shoigus denounce lack of proper military training.
The minister’s latest messages ahead of his brief appearance today were last March 11, when he was on the phone with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar, according to the Defense Ministry, and then made his way to the Mandryka Central Military Hospital. of Moscow to present honors to soldiers who “distinguished themselves in the special military operation”. On the 18th, according to the Kremlin website, he attended a Security Council meeting chaired by Putin, of which no picture was published.
That evening, Pervyi Kanal published pictures of the honoring of the soldiers, noting that the event is from that day, but the pictures are identical to those of the 11th. Journalists from Angentstvo (formerly Proekt), who questioned the Defense Ministry yesterday about the reason for the disappearance, were told the minister was unwell and had “heart problems”.