person of the week
Is Putin’s Defense Minister Shoigu facing eviction?
By Wolfram Weimer
10/04/2022 09:28 am
In the Ukraine war, Russia’s army suffers one disgrace after the other. Rumors are circulating in Moscow that Defense Minister Shoigu is about to be replaced. Is Putin’s power system faltering?
First the Kharkiv metropolitan area, then Izyum and Kupyansk, finally Lyman and now the breakthrough at Cherson. With every city that the Ukrainian counter-offensive is currently retaking, the political pressure on Vladimir Putin increases. Initial disappointment at the failures of the Russian army has now turned to open anger in Moscow. Internal criticism is getting louder and no longer comes only from scattered members of the opposition or desperate people who fear for their family members. It is now penetrating – to the astonishment of the public – from the innermost ranks of the Russian rulers.
Last Saturday, Shoigu visited a training center for mobilized reservists.
(Photo: IMAGO/ITAR-TASS)
A high-ranking diplomat in Moscow predicts: “Putin will soon have to come up with a scapegoat so that he doesn’t get caught in the crosshairs of internal criticism.” Rumors are already circulating in Moscow that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is about to be replaced. The Duma, the Russian parliament, is already openly proposing to replace the ailing defense minister to subpoena. On the Internet, Russian military bloggers are stirring up anti-Shoigu sentiment. They are usually ultra-nationalists and have long been propaganda supporters of Kremlin policies, reaching an audience of millions and becoming a threat to Putin. Because their public criticism becomes a political bomb, and they are currently demanding a head roll in the military leadership. The resignations of Colonel-General Alexander Lapin, Chief of Staff Valeri Gerasimov and Defense Minister Shoigu are being demanded.
“Looser Barefoot to the Front”
Three of the most important cues and agitators in Putin’s circle of power have taken the public military blogger attacks on the army leadership to a higher political level: Dagestan’s President Sergei Melikov, once commander of Putin’s National Guard, Chechnya’s President and Putin’s brother-in-arms Ramzan Kadyrov, and the head of the paramilitary Wagner Troupe and Kremlin propagandist Yevgeny Prigozhin, also known as “Putin’s chef” because of his career as a Kremlin caterer. All three rumble on their Telegram channels against the warfare in Ukraine, the mistakes in mobilization and blame the army leadership for the disaster. Kadyrov: “The nepotism in the army will not lead to good. It is necessary to appoint in the army strong, courageous, principled people who care about their fighters, who cut their teeth for their soldiers, who know that a subordinate cannot be left without help and support. There is no place for nepotism in the army, especially in difficult times.” Prigozhin assisted: “Bravo, Ramzan, keep rocking! All these loosers belong barefoot with guns at the front.”
Public opinion in Russia is increasingly irritated after the mass mobilization. Nationalists are already vilifying Shoigu as the “plywood marshal.” The influential blogger and former head of PR for Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, Anastasiya Kashevarova, also publicly demanded answers from Shoigu and Gerasimov: “Does the President know about the incidents? Who is reporting to him? Where is the equipment? Where are the Armata (- tank)? Where is everything? How did this happen? Bagged? Sold? Where did it go? Did it even exist?”
Corrupt and possibly sick
In Russia, it is precisely registered that Putin shows himself less and less with Shoigu. So far, Shoigu has been considered a central pillar in Putin’s power architecture. Shoygu was already a minister in Moscow when Boris Yeltsin was still in power in the Kremlin. Since 2012, the defense minister has commanded one of the largest armies in the world, complete with nuclear missiles. In 2014 he organized the military annexation of Crimea, calling this breach of international law an act of “peacekeeping”, received a medal of merit for it and was named “Person of the Year” in Russia several times. Shoigu has been close to Putin for many years and regularly lures the president to his southern Siberian homeland of Tuva for summer vacations, where the two men enjoyed shirtless fishing, boating and hunting. They even picked mushrooms together. Like Putin’s entire circle of oligarchs, Shoigu has also made a considerable fortune. Regime critic Alexej Navalny exposed Shoigu as a corrupt politician and revealed that the defense minister had built a spectacular property for 21.7 million euros – a pompous property complete with a Buddhist pagoda – Shoigu is a Buddhist, he comes from the border region with Mongolia – and obscene luxury.
Shoigu is considered the heroic military leader behind the operations in Syria, Georgia, Libya and Armenia. He saw himself in a category with the greats of military history and once qualified German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as a “primary school student”. In the meantime, he was even said to have a personal interest in the presidency. But with the Ukraine war, his reputation has been badly damaged. Shoigu had to go into public hiding right at the beginning of the invasion, allegedly because of a heart attack. He was seen at a video meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on March 24, which is now believed to have been a montage. Schoigu’s illness could now also serve as an argument for his dismissal.