Shoigu was almost the first to ascend the Kremlin stairs for P | baunovhaus

Shoigu was almost the first to ascend the Kremlin stairs for Putin's inauguration.

Classic Kremlinologists of the past would say that the clouds over Shoigu have cleared. After the failures of 2022 and the coup of 2023, the situation on the front was improving.

But nothing is forgotten; the Prigozhin’s coup is not erased from memory. Shoigu’s deputy Timur Ivanov's corruption case reminded of the main motive of the coup, which is also the main complaint of Russian military bloggers: theft in the Ministry of Defense.

The proposal to appoint Belousov - one of the main court economists and the chief dirigiste in the economic bloc - as the head of the Ministry of Defense may mean that Putin intends to win the war in military industrial complex, factories and international markets. This is logical in its own way; the economic bloc of the Russian govt in the war turned out to be more effective overall than the military.

The strategy for winning in this case will not be in mobilizations and breakthroughs on the frontline but in slow pressure on Ukraine, using the power of the Russian military-industrial complex and the economy as a whole, which apparently is intended to be more effectively put to work on both the front and the rear.

Shoigu, of course, is too big to fall but is being transferred to the chair almost at the head of the 'Politburo,' but without real command powers and without a cashbox.