MOSCOW, May 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed former First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov as the new Defense Minister, succeeding Sergei Shoigu, who moves to the role of Russian Security Council Secretary.
The 65-year-old Belousov has held various positions including assistant to the President on economic issues, Minister of Economic Development, Director of the Department of Economics and Finance at the Government Office, and General Director of the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-term Forecasting.
In a separate decree, Putin appointed Shoigu, the defense minister since 2012, as the Secretary of the Security Council, replacing Nikolai Patrushev. The Kremlin said that it will soon announce the new appointment for Patrushev.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Shoigu will also become Deputy President in the commission on the military-industrial complex.
The shake-up comes as Putin begins his fifth term in office. In line with Russian law, the entire cabinet resigned on Tuesday after Putin’s inauguration in the Kremlin.
Belousov’s candidacy will need to be approved by Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that Putin had decided to give the defence portfolio to a civilian because the ministry should be “open to innovation and cutting-edge ideas” and Belousov was the right fit for the job.
Putin won the March election by securing 87 percent of the vote in a poll that analysts said lacked democratic legitimacy after several candidates opposed to the war in Ukraine were barred from contesting by the Central Election Commission.
MEANWHILE, the death toll climbed to 14 from the collapse of the residential building in Russia’s Belgorod, a city some 40 km north of the border with Ukraine, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said.
“The body of the ninth victim has been found under the debris of the building in Belgorod,” the ministry was quoted by local media as saying.
Earlier reports said 18 people were missing as a 10-story residential building collapsed following a Ukrainian attack in Belgorod, where missile warnings had been issued repeatedly on Sunday. — NNN-AGENCIES
