Belousov will bring economic rigour to Russian defence spending

In his final public appearance as Russia’s defence minister on Thursday, Sergei Shoigu saluted Vladimir Putin atop Lenin’s mausoleum on Red Square, clad in a general’s uniform bedecked with medals.

Andrei Belousov, appointed as his successor on Sunday, is cut from a different cloth. A Soviet-trained economist, Belousov has never served a day in the army and has served Putin, Russia’s president, in various roles as a civilian adviser on economics.

Putin’s surprise tapping of Belousov to run the defence ministry indicates Putin wants a major shift in the handling of his two-year invasion of Ukraine, according to people who know both men, as well as Russian analysts.