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Putin Extends Defence Ministry Purge, Assigns Work To A Relative
Four deputy ministers of defence were fired today by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also named a family member to fill one of the consequent openings.
The resignation of longtime defense minister Sergei Shoigu, which Putin abruptly removed in May, signaled the beginning of a drastic shakeout that included this reorganization. Putin has used the adjustments to indicate that, more than two years into the conflict in Ukraine, he intends to rid the ministry of waste and corruption and better utilize Russia’s war economy to support the demands of front-line combatants.
According to orders from the Kremlin, Putin fired Tatiana Shevtsova, Pavel Popov, Nikolai Pankov, and Ruslan Tsalikov as deputy defense ministers.
Enhancing housing and social support for military troops is one of the duties assigned to his newly appointed deputy minister of defense, Anna Tsivileva, the daughter of his late cousin. Her spouse is Russian’s Minister of Energy; Sergei Tsivilev
Prior to this, Tsivileva was named by Putin as the director of a state fund intended to aid Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. Subordinate to Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, an economist without military background who was appointed last month to succeed Shoigu, Leonid Gornin, the former first deputy finance minister, will now cover defense policy.
The primary responsibilities of Gornin are “to ensure efficient spending of budget funds and increase the transparency of financial flows,” according to the ministry of defense. The son of Pavel Fradkov and Oleg Savelyev were also nominated deputy defense ministers.
Oleg Savelyev and Pavel Fradkov, the sons of former prime minister Mikhail Fradkov, were both chosen as deputy ministers of defense.
Fradkov will be in charge of building, land, and property administration for the armed forces.
April 23 saw the arrest of Timur Ivanov, a former deputy minister of defense, who was charged with accepting bribes. Four more senior ministry and general staff officers have now been detained on the same allegations in the largest corruption scandal to rock the Russian government in recent memory.
