The secretary of defense appears, disappears and reappears, Sergei Shoigu. Yesterday, for the first time in a fifteenday absence from the media, President Putin’s very close associate and friend, with whom he also hunts and fishes in Siberia, emerged in a video posted on his department’s website with top executives in between published was that of the Chief of Staff, General Gerasimov (not even on the media radar for days). Palefaced and slightly labored breathing, Shoigu issues orders, citing a recent meeting at the Treasury Department: “Given the military special operation, the current pace is important in the delivery of advanced weapons, including robotic systems, intelligence gathering, electronic warfare and, of course, the means of materiel.” and technical support to the armed forces, as always ». And then list the priorities. “Longrange precisionguided weapons, aeronautical hardware and maintaining the combat readiness of strategic nuclear forces.” Shoigu is then one of three holders of the nuclear law in Moscow Putin and with Gerasimov. He also announced yesterday that Ukrainian veterans will receive tax breaks and health care like in Syria and Afghanistan. The content is that of the usual Shoigu, defense minister for ten years, but initially head of civil defense, of Putin’s United Russia party and minister for emergency situations.
He developed the avantgarde military technologies, the concept of hybrid warfare, and gave wings to the militaryindustrial apparatus. He is famous for piloting the Russian war machine in scenarios such as Syria and the US Donbass (before the invasion) as well as ultimate responsibility for the imperfect Skripal poisoning operations in Salisbury and Navalny in Siberia.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has been missing for 13 days. Kyiv: “He had a heart attack”
A few days ago he appeared wordlessly among the members of the National Security Council associated with Putin. He had not been seen in public since March 11, when the Kremlin chief ordered him and Gerasimov to warn nuclear deterrent units. As of February 24, a week before the invasion, the Pentagon he searches in vain for both.
The mystery continues, also because in the press conference a month after the start of the war there was no Shoigu or Gerasimov to take stock, but a simple deputy chief. On the 23rd of last month, however, the image that went around the world goes back to Putin sitting at the head of a long, narrow desk, with Shoigu and Gerasimov sitting at the back, at the side, meters away. The first is credited with complicity in deciding to attack Ukraine despite opposition from the intelligence services, and paternity with Putin of the underlying ideology. It was precisely for this reason that his absence from the media had sparked controversy. There were rumors of heart problems. The Ukrainian government went so far as to argue that Shoigu suffered a heart attack because Putin blamed him for the campaign’s failure.
son of a reporter
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the rumours: “The defense minister is busy with a special military operation underway, it is not the time for him to devote himself to the media.” The absence of news and programming was striking because of its role and popularity, perhaps surpassed only by Putin. Originally from the Republic of Tuva in centralsouthern Siberia on the border with Mongolia, the son of a “Tuvan” journalist and politician and a Russian farmer of Ukrainian origin is the defense minister of a major power that allocates more than 4.6 to 100 of GDP in military spending and runs politics of imperialist expansion without having done the military itself.
The Soviet uniform
His decision is to restore the 1945 Soviet uniform. A month after the invasion, the limits of Moscow’s military capabilities are evident. Internally, the very high number of casualties among the soldiers (more than 1,350 is the official number of Moscow, over 16 thousand according to the Ukrainians), the death of several generals in the field and the rumor mill about purges in the intelligentsia weigh heavily. Russian economists have singled out Shoigu as Putin’s possible successor, but now that Ukraine is doing badly, how much can Putin blame the defense minister? And vice versa.
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