In a special session, the Russian State Duma approved Vladimir Putin’s personnel plans. Key government positions have been filled. This is intended to strengthen the armaments industry.
In the end, it was all about the staff: Russian President Vladimir Putin had the parliament convene at short notice for a special session on Friday. About the reasons was much speculation been: mobilization, official declaration of war on Ukraine, even the establishment of a new soviet union was brought up by the media.
To save the honor of the guild, it should be said: Even in Russia, hardly anyone knew what the President was up to.
After Friday’s meeting, one thing is certain: Putin is carrying out a personnel shift in key positions in the government. For this he needed the official approval of the State Duma.
Almost five months after the start of the war, important positions within the Russian leadership have been filled. On Friday, Putin had Industry Minister Denis Manturov confirmed as Deputy Prime Minister by MPs and appointed Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borissov, previously responsible for the armaments industry, as the new Director General of the space agency Roscosmos.
Holidays can be canceled for workers
Borissov had recently initiated the conversion of the economy to the needs of warfare. After the approval of the Duma, companies can now be obliged to fulfill state contracts and their employees can be forced to work overtime and give up holidays.
Parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin had stressed before the special session that the Duma had to deal with some issues as soon as possible and should not postpone them until autumn. These apparently included the new personnel powers of the armaments industry.
There is still no official information about the fate of the previous Roskosmos boss Dmitry Rogozin. According to media reports, the hardliner will either take on a leading position in the presidential administration or become one of the Kremlin curators in the separatist regions of Donetsk or Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, which Moscow recognizes as independent.
With material from the news agency SDA.
Mikhail Metzel/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/dpa