Here are the facts: Shoigu is moving into another significant position (hardly being sacked). Shoigu served 10 years in his position! That's about 2 - 3 times as long as his US counterparts on average last.
This war in Ukraine is a war of attrition and between the war industrial base of the West vs. Russia. If you want to see this in effect: https://twitter.com/EmbassyofRussia/status/1789993360167510372/photo/1 It's not just the US throwing money and material at Ukraine, it's near all of the EU and even some other countries. Some countries have nearly depleted their inventory of heavy equipment in support of Ukraine: https://mzv.gov.cz/sofia/en/about_the_czech_republic/foreign_policy/czechia_sends_hundreds_of_heavy_military.html
Shoigu spends much of his time addressing material and logistical issues regarding this conflict, visiting factories, meeting with the heads of firms where things are manufactured, dealing with supply chain issues, etc.
For Ukraine the number one issue is warm bodies, they are running out. The West is bankrolling and materially supporting them.
For Russia the number one issue is making sure they do not run out of material at the front. They had a peace-time economy up until this war, spending even less GDP on their war machine than we (the US) did before the war. In fact, many of the key issues the Russians face are "war industrial" in nature, trying to ramp up production of key weapon systems, maintain production where you are running into shortages because of sanctions, etc.
For the Russians, this is also a very delicate long-term issue of "guns vs. butter." As they transform more into a war-time economy, they must somehow balance that since long term this could cause internal problems. If they are going to continue pushing, they need to keep their war-fighter supplied, but also can't neglect the rest of society. Putting an economist in charge is not a bad idea.
I'm not really sure if this is a improvement for us: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrey_Belousov
So, Shoigu is being “kicked upstairs” to head Russia’s National Security Council - and yet we still have idiot zeepers, pooping on FR with their propaganda, putting out pictures of Shoigu with an “X” on him, next to Alexey Navalny
It would be more cost effective if the Russian troops just played Russian roulette about 20 times each.
Economists are not known for being good managers or businessmen. Nor are they good at making forecasts.
Military supplies are “materiel,” not “material.”
Playing a war of attrition with Russia is almost always a losing position. They have more people and are willing to use them. Reference WW2.
Also any talk of Crimea going to Ukraine is a non-starter. Russia will NEVER give back Ukraine. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
MSNBC types are trying so-hard to spin this as evidence Putin is flailing. I took a peak at a prominent prog blogsite and there is much rejoicing.
In fact, this is a promotion combined with other concurrent changes to RU government it gives Shoigu more responsibility for running the economics of the war.
There’s also a desperation to keep it going for a decade because of all the free money.
Once that revenue stream dries up, people are going to have live off of their ill-gotten gains.
Andrey Removich Belousov has exactly no military experience.
In Russia that’s probably for the best as this means he hasn’t been hazed, beaten, homosexually raped, (collectively known as ‘dedovshchina’) and he hasn’t been indoctrinated in Soviet-era tactics.
That doesn’t mean Russia is going to win anything. But perhaps he might give Putin a more realistic and less glowing assessment of Russia’s actual military capabilities.
I thought Hillary and Kerry were the most amateur of SecStated, but Blinkin is living off and destroying any reputation of his father.
That Washington believes it has a firewall smoothering the truth but the lies are comical.