While the Russian military launched a major offensive in northeastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin replaced his defense minister with an economist. A sign that the Kremlin is preparing for a “long” war for many scholars.
The timing seems surprising at first glance. While Russia has just launched a new offensive on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the government reshuffle orchestrated Sunday, May 12 by Vladimir Putin – something rare in the Kremlin – surprised many scholars. Less than a week after his re-investigation, the Russian president has chosen to replace his defense minister Sergei Shoigu, who has been in office for 12 years, who becomes secretary of the Russian Security Council. He was replaced by Andrei Belousov, an economist by training, without military experience.
At the end of 2022, it appeared that, because of Russia’s poor military performance, the remarkable Ukrainian resistance and strong mobilization of Westerners alongside Kiev, the war in Ukraine could turn into a fiasco for Russia. Since then, the country’s armed forces have recovered in hand. They went back to the attack by launching their biggest offensive since the attempt to take Kiev in March 2022.
