The Russian president, Vladimir Putindismissed on Monday four vice ministers of defense and appointed a family member to fill one of the resulting vacancies.
The remodeling is the last stage of the radical reorganization that Putin began in May, when he unexpectedly dismissed his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu.
After more than two years of war in Ukraine, Putin has used the changes to signal that he wants to eliminate waste and corruption in the ministry and use Russia’s war economy more effectively to meet the needs of soldiers on the front. . Up to five Ministry leaders have been arrested for corruption in recent months.
In the latest changes, Putin dismissed the deputy ministers of Nikolai Pankov, Ruslan Tsalikov, Tatiana Shevtsova and Pavel Popovaccording to Kremlin decrees.
Likewise, he appointed Vice Minister of Defense Anna Tsivileva, daughter of his late cousin, whose responsibilities will include improving housing and social support for military personnel. Her husband, Sergei Tsivilev, is the Minister of Energy. He has also named Pavel Fradkovson of Mikhail Fradkov, prime minister between 2004 and 2007 and also director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (2007-2016).
Previously, Putin had appointed Tsivileva as head of a state fund to support participants in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Leonid Gorninuntil now first deputy minister of Finance, will now occupy the position of first deputy minister of Defense under the orders of the minister Andrei Belousovan economist with no military experience who was appointed to replace Shoigu.
Gornin’s main tasks will be to “increase the transparency of financial flows and ensure effective spending of budget funds,” according to the Ministry of Defense.
The official gazette published this Monday the appointments in a presidential decree that thus represents the dismissal of Ruslan Tsalikov, replaced by Gornin. These changes come after several cases of corruption at the top of the Ministry of Defense that have led to the arrest of five senior officials in the Ministry.
The most recent cases are those of Vladimir Verteletski, a senior official in charge of Ministry purchases accused of abuse of power, and that of Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarindeputy chief of the Army Staff, for having accepted a “large-scale bribe.”
In April the former vice minister of Defense was arrested Timur Ivanovconsidered one of the trusted men of the former head of the portfolio, Sergei Shoigu, for having also received “large-scale bribes.”
Already in May, they were arrested first Yuri Kuznetsov, head of personnel management of the Defense portfolio and a few days later it was the turn of the former Army commander, major general Ivan Popovboth for corruption.
These arrests within the Ministry of Defense occur at a time of restructuring in the portfolio itself, with the appointment on May 12 of Andrei Belousov as the new head and in full offensive of the Russian forces, which in recent weeks have achieved take over areas from which they were expelled by Ukrainian troops just over a year ago.
(With information from Reuters and EP)
