Putin appoints 12 new deputy defense ministers including one of his relatives
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday appointed 12 new deputy defense ministers, including a relative, amid a purge targeting generals and officials arrested on corruption charges after the replacement of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
The first wave of changes occurred in mid-May, when, a few days after winning a fifth term, Russia’s president replaced Shoigu, who had been in office since 2012, with military-inexperienced economist Andrei Belousov.
Putin justified the abrupt cabinet reshuffle by the need to improve inflated military spending to support Ukraine’s military needs.
Since then, at least five generals or officials, including those close to the former minister, have been arrested on corruption charges, demonstrating the rise of technocrats within the Kremlin’s military apparatus.
Among the twelve deputy ministers appointed Monday by presidential decree is Anna Tsivilyova, a cousin of Vladimir Putin, who is under European and British sanctions.
Until her appointment as deputy defense minister, Tsivilyova headed the important “Defenders of the Fatherland” fund, which was set up by the Russian president in 2023 and officially aims to provide personal social support to veterans of the conflict in Ukraine and to the families of soldiers who have died or died of their wounds.
The Defense Ministry confirmed that Tsivilyova would take care of all issues related to social assistance and housing for military personnel.
Also, on the list is Pavel Fradkov, son of the former prime minister (2004-2007) and director of foreign intelligence from 2007 to 2016, Mikhail Fradkov.
He will be in charge of the military’s construction sector, after his predecessor was arrested in that post on corruption charges.
Leonid Gornin, a former finance ministry official, was also appointed first deputy defense minister.
Corruption among military officials was one of the reasons why the leader of the Wagner armed group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was harshly critical of the military.
In June, Prigozhin led a failed insurgency against Moscow’s military leadership after accusing army leaders of incompetence in the Ukraine war.
Prigozhin was killed two months later in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances.
