Author: Vasil Ghlonti
Introduction
Amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed his closest aide Sergey Shoigu from the post of Defense Minister and transferred him to the post of Secretary of the Security Council. Andrei Belousov was appointed as the Head of the Defense Ministry in his place. Soon, Shoigu’s deputies also left their posts, and their positions were taken over by other individuals. In parallel, Russian law enforcers arrested Sergei Shoigu’s deputy Temur Ivanov and other senior Ministry officials. Putin used Shoigu to replace former Secretary of the Security Council, General Nikolai Patrushev, who was transferred to his administration as an adviser. The purpose of our topic is to discuss and analyze the reasons for the personnel reshuffles and the results of doing so.
Personnel Changes in the Russian Ministry of Defense
The war launched by Russia against Ukraine fully exposed existing problems in Russia’s defense and security. A non-businesslike, and at the same time corrupt, environment had formed in the Defense Ministry due to the lack of professional military personnel and high-ranking government managers in the team established by Minister Sergei Shoigu on the principle of nepotism. The fact that the Russian military system was run by corrupt and fraudulent schemes as a result led to serious problems on the battlefield.
Against this background, the rebellion of Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner military group, who almost reached Moscow with his mercenaries, was a major blow to Sergei Shoigu’s image, proving the complete incompetence of he and his team. The situation was complicated by the fact that Nikolai Patrushev, the Secretary of the Security Council, viewed Shoigu as a rival for influence in the Kremlin, and used the mistakes against him. However, it is a fact that Putin, due to personal friendship and for his own benefit, often turned a blind eye to the systemic problems in the Ministry under Sergei Shoigu, including the large-scale corruption. Yet, on April 23, 2024, the Federal Security Service (FSS) arrested Shoigu’s right-hand man and deputy Temur Ivanov on charges of grand corruption, which was a clear personal attack on Shoigu. The fact that Shoigu confided in Ivanov on issues related to the management of assets in the Defense Ministry, deployment of troops of the Russian Armed Forces, housing and medical care, proves his great trust in his deputy. Being a specialist in the financial and economic sphere, Temur Ivanov was responsible for the construction, reconstruction and repair of facilities of the Russian Defense Ministry and military mortgage, which meant that he supervised the most profitable and important areas of the ministry at the minister’s orders.
What caused such a lamentable end to Temur Ivanov’s successful career? We can assume that, in addition to the Shoigu factor and corruption, his lavish lifestyle and excessive public attention played a major role. Ivanov divorced his scandalous wife Svetlana Zakharova and married Maria Kitaeva, the former wife of his fellow deputy defense minister and ministerial advisor, Yuri Sadavenko. Such high-profile undesirable facts resulted in great discontent among Russian society. While the Putin regime was urging the Russian population to fight against NATO, Temur Ivanov’s former and current wives were vacationing at expensive European resorts. Most likely, this factor was well utilized by former and current FSS heads, Nikolai Patrushev and Alexander Bortnikov, who launched a successful attack on Shoigu. As a result, Putin fired Shoigu from the post of minister, but relented and transferred him to the post of Secretary of the Security Council. At the same time, Putin entrusted important issues, among them the development of the defense-industrial complex and the coordination of law enforcement agencies, to Shoigu. Thesubsequent appointment of Alexander Belousov, an economist by profession, as Defense Minister shows that Russia is preparing for a long war with Ukraine, a war that only a country with a strong economy will win. It is likely, then, thatPutin wants the new minister to put the economy on a military footing and accelerate the development of the military industry.
Among these events, our special attention was drawn to the dismissal of Nikolai Patrushev. It is difficult to say why Putin made such a decision, although we can assume that he feared Patrushev’s growing influence. While Shoigu as minister had his factor balancing the Patrushev clan, after the fall of the Shoigu clan, Patrushev was left without competition in the power bloc. It is possible that this is what Putin was afraid of.
Noteworthy is the fact that as soon as Shoigu was transferred, repressions were immediately started against his cadres in the defense sector. On May 14, Yuri Kuznetsov, the Head of the Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, was accused of accepting especially large bribes. On May 22, 2024, the arrest of another high-ranking official, Lieutenant General Shamarin, followed, seeing him also accused of taking large bribes.
Against this scandalous background, President Putin, dismissed Tatiana Shevtsova, Ruslan Tsalikov, Pavel Popov, and Nikolai Pankov from the posts of deputy ministers of defense and appointed Leonid Gornin, Pavel Fradkov, Anna Tsivileva and Oleg Saveliev as their substitutes. The chaos in the ministry incited such a wide resonance among the population that Putin sought to subordinate the ongoing processes in the Ministry and the huge revenues in the field of defense to his own control. This is also confirmed by the staff resuffle, since most of the new deputies enjoy Putin’s personal trust. Among the new appointees, Pavel Fradkov deserves our special attention, as he will oversee the issues of property management, land resources, construction of construction facilities, and public economy inaccordance with Ministry needs. His father, Mikhail Fradkov, is a person close to Putin, who at different times held the positions of the Head of the Russian Government and the Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Pavel’s brother Petr is a top banker and an international class economist who, in addition to a Russian education (Moscow State Institute of International Relations [MGIMO], Global Economy), also received a British one (Kingston Business School). An interesting detail is that Petr Fradkov currently heads the top Russian bank, Promsvyazbank, which has overseen special operations and large government contracts in the field of military orders at the initiative of Putin since 2018. At the same time, since April 9, 2021, Petr has been the Head of the Expert Council for the Development of Financial Instruments and Non-Financial Measures to Support the Production of the Military-Industrial Complex of the State Duma Commission of Legal Support for the Development of Defense Industry Organizations. This proves that the appointment of Pavel Fradkov as Deputy Minister of Defense was not accidental. Pavel also received a good education. He first graduated from the Moscow Suvorov Institute, then the Academy of the FSS, and finally, like his elder brother, graduated from the MGIMO, majoring in Global Economy. Based on this, we can assume that he is perceived as a friend in Russian military circles and among the Special Services, which is vital to making a career in the military field.
The Second Deputy Minister, Anna Tsivileva (maiden name Putina), also caught our eye. She is, according to the world’s media, the daughter of Putin’s late cousin and the wife of the Minister of Energy, Sergey Tsivilev, from St. Petersburg. The career advancement of Anna Tsivileva-Putina and her husband, Sergey Tsivilev, is directly connected with the patronage of President Putin. An intriguing detail is that, in 2016-18, she served as the General Director of the Kolmar Sales and Logistics Swiss company, which means that she has international connections. She has also been the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kolmar Group coal company since 2018. The latter post she took over from her husband when he became the Governor of Kemerovo. It is noteworthy that Valery Tsivilev, Sergey Tsivilev’sbrother, is the CEO of the company. Gennady Timchenko, a friend of Putin, gave the company shares to the Tsivilev family at a symbolic price. Undoubtedly, the family’s connection with Putin was the decisive factor for this move. Another important fact in the biography of Anna Tsivileva: on April 3, 2023, President Putin signed a decree on the creation of a state fund supporting the participants of the special military operation. The same document appointed Anna Tsvileva as the chairperson of the fund. As per our obesrvations, Putin had been preparing his close relative to join the defense sector since the previous year, and was only waiting for a favorable moment. With this, Putin assigned a person of trust to the most important ministry.
The figure of Novosibirsk financier-economist Leonid Gornin, who was appointed as the First Deputy Minister of Russia in 2012, is also noteworthy. Taking into account that he previously worked as the Deputy Governor of Novosibirsk, his great career growth is an interesting fact. During his work as the Deputy Minister of Finance, Gornin oversaw military expenditures; that is, he was well aware of the financial system in defense. It was likely with this in mind that Gornin was transferred to the Ministry of Defense, where he was entrusted with the financial security of theagency. In our opinion, rather than Temur Ivanov as the first deputy minister of defense, Putin needed a business person, one with a relatively unproblematic biography, to slow down the raging agitation.
Oleg Saveliev, another newly appointed deputy, grabbed our attention. As per our observations, Saveliev is a close associate of the Minister of Defense, Andrei Belousov, given that, while he was working as the Deputy Minister of Economic Development in 2008-2014, Andrei Belousov held the post of Minister (2012 to 2013). However, to say that Saveliev is Belousov’s cadre alone would be incorrect, since he worked as Deputy Minister of Economic Development before Belousov; that is, he has another serious patron. We found it interesting in his biography that he was appointed as the Minister of Crimean Affairs after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, and in 2015-2018, was appointed to the position of Deputy Head of the Government Apparatus, in parallel standing as a member of the Commission on Issues of Crimea and Sevastopol. It is possible that his appointment as Deputy Minister of Defense is connected with the mentioned fact, since the knowledge and experience he gained in Ukraine will be used in the interests of the Kremlin. Another fascinating detail: from September 25, 2019, on the recommendation of Vladimir Putin, Saveliev was appointed by the Federation Council as an auditor of the Accounts Chamber of Russia (Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation), where he oversaw the direction of defense, security and law enforcement activities. He left this position on May 20, 2024, at the decision of the Federation Council, and on the same day Putin appointed him as Deputy Minister of Defense.
Interestingly, Alexander Fomin, Yunus-Bek Evkurov, Alexey Krivoruchko, Andrey Bulyga and Viktor Goremykin retained their posts of deputy ministers of Defense. In this list, our attention was drawn to the figure of Alexey Krivoruchko. Originally from Ukraine, Krivoruchko became involved in a major scandal when it was revealed that his two daughters were born in America, and that he had founded a local company (5256 Fisher Island Drive) in Miami, USA, in 2011, although this did not negatively impact his successful career. In addition to serving as deputy minister, he is also involved in business and is on the boards of directors of several large joint-stock companies, including a bank, United Shipbuilding Corporation, JSC KTRV, and PJSC Promsvyazbank. We found PJSC Promsvyazbank notable in particular, as it is headed by Petr Fradkov, brother of the newly appointed Pavel Fradkov. As such, it is clear to see that Putin has created a business circle in the Ministry of Defense in which he has employed the mutuallyfamiliar clans of Fradkov and Krivoruchko, who jointly manage PJSC Promsvyazbank.
Conclusion
In our assessment, the purpose of the personnel reshuffle carried out by President Putin in the Defense Ministry is to establish control over the military sphere. His weakening/neutralization of the Shoigu and Patrushev clans simultaneously serves to strengthen his absolute power and has nothing to do with an attempt at systemic reform. All newly appointed deputy ministers are either related to Putin or are among his inner circle. Putin has strengthened the mechanisms of control over financial flows in the defense sector with these personnel transfers. The fact that the Russian President is focused on economic and financial issues with these changes is also evidenced by the fact that all the newly appointed deputies are representatives of the economic and financial sectors. It should also be noted that the new leadership of the Defense Ministry is far superior to Sergei Shoigu and his team in terms of rank and professionalism. As such, in our opinion, the main purpose of Putin’s personnel reshuffle is to put the country’s economy on a military path, a move much needed if he is to win the war with Ukraine and generate large revenues.
