Vladimir Putin removes Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu

Russia’s longest-serving minister, Sergei Shoigu, has been axed in a shake-up to the country’s military leadership more than two years into its Ukraine offensive.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday moved to replace defence minister Sergei Shoigu in a major shake-up to Russia’s military leadership more than two years into its Ukraine offensive.

Putin proposed economist Andrey Belousov as Shoigu’s replacement, according to a list of the ministerial nominations published by the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament.

Putin simultaneously published decrees naming Shoigu as the new secretary of the Security Council, replacing long-standing Putin ally Nikolai Patrushev.

“Shoigu will continue to work in this sector (defence), which he knows well,” state media quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

“He knows it very well from the inside, together with his colleagues and partners at his previous place of work,” he added.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (2nd L), Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (2nd R) and Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev (R) leave Red Square.

Putin is constitutionally required to name a new set of government ministers - or reappoint existing ones - following his victory in a March election devoid of opposition.

Lawmakers in Russia’s rubber-stamp parliament need to approve the president’s nominations, which they are set to do on Tuesday.

The major reshuffle comes with Russian forces advancing on the battlefield for the first time in months.

Shoigu was appointed Russian defence minister in 2012.

Despite a string of military setbacks for Russia - including the failure to capture the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and retreats from the northeastern Kharkiv and southern Kherson regions - Putin had stood by Shoigu until now.

That included when Wagner paramilitary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a bloody insurrection last year calling for Shoigu’s removal.

Belousov, Shoigu’s nominated replacement, has no military background. He has been one of Putin’s most influential economic advisors over the last decade.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu salutes to soldiers as he is driven along Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow on May 9.

Russia’s Shoigu: Political survivor blamed for Ukraine setbacks

Sergei Shoigu, who is being replaced as Russia’s defence minister, spearheaded Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine and has been the country’s longest-serving minister, as well as being one of Vladimir Putin’s few close friends.

However, his handling of the assault against Ukraine was criticised by many in Russia and his reputation was further hit by recent corruption accusations against one of his deputies.

In 2023, late Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin began a very public feud against the higher echelons of the Russian military over the conduct of the conflict.

Prigozhin, who later led a short-lived mutiny and died in a mysterious plane accident, accused Shoigu in particular of being a “dirtbag” and “elderly clown” in furious audio messages that went viral in Russia.

Although Russia’s fortunes have changed on the battlefield in recent months, with a string of recent advances, Shoigu’s reputation has failed to recover.

- Under pressure -

Even before the Prigozhin revolt broke out, Shoigu had been under immense pressure due to initial setbacks during Russia’s offensive in 2022.

According to a widely shared video from June 2023, Putin and Shoigu attended a handing out of medals at a military hospital, where the Russian president was shown turning his back on the defence minister in apparent disdain.

In recent years, there were no more public expressions of macho friendship or pictures showing the two men sun-bathing bare-chested together in remote Siberia, sharing fishing holidays and playing on the same ice hockey team.

The 68-year-old, who had served as defence minister since 2012, has had a decades-long political career of unmatched longevity in post-Soviet Russia.

His presence at the centre of power in Moscow predates that of Putin himself. Hailing from the Tuva region of southern Siberia, Shoigu is among the few non-ethnic Russians to have occupied a top post in government after the collapse of the USSR.

Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (2nd L) inspects a captured Ukrainian military equipment as he visits Russian forces at an undisclosed location in Russian controlled Ukraine.

- Political survivor -

He began his ascent in 1994 when he was appointed emergency situations minister in the early years of the Boris Yeltsin presidency.

Shoigu became a familiar and unflappable presence for Russians, as well as one of the country’s most popular politicians, as he raced around the country to deal with disasters ranging from plane crashes to earthquakes.

Serving under a dozen prime ministers, he held that post until 2012, when he was appointed governor of the Moscow region before swiftly being named defence minister by Putin the same year after a corruption scandal felled his predecessor Anatoly Serdyukov.

He was immediately named a general, despite having no high-level military experience, but successfully oversaw operations including the 2015 intervention in Syria, which has kept Moscow’s ally Bashar al-Assad in power.

For his 65th birthday, Putin had a special present for his friend, one of Russia’s highest decorations, the “For Merit to the Fatherland” medal to add to a chest already stuffed with decorations.

But the far less successful offensive in Ukraine - which the Kremlin initially hoped would see Russian tanks roll into Kyiv - persistently raised questions about his future.

After the start of the offensive in February 2022, Shoigu was reduced to mumbling encounters reporting to Putin or simply consigned to a screen as the Kremlin chief oversaw video conferences.

AFP