What the Shoigu reshuffle means for Putin’s war machine

There was an expectation that the appointment of Vladimir Putin’s new government would see some change in the Russian security apparatus, but few predicted that Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu would be replaced by an economist, Andrey Belousov, with Shoigu becoming secretary of the Security Council.

With an economist taking over the defence ministry, and the old minister taking up a policy and advisory role, the technocrats are in the ascendant. The goal though is not peace, but a more efficient war.

Much has been made in some quarters about the fact that Belousov is an economist rather than a soldier. Setting aside the fact that neither Shoigu nor his predecessor Anatoly Serdyukov (the former head of the Federal Tax Service) were soldiers (nor are most of their western counterparts) this is to misunderstand the role. The chief of the General Staff, currently the widely-despised General Valery Gerasimov, is Russia’s top soldier, responsible for military planning and operations, and reports directly to the commander-in-chief, the president. The defence minister, especially in time of war, is essentially an administrator, there to ensure that the military has the men and materiel it needs.