[Goose]

Interesting shakeup in the Kremlin. Longtime Putin crony and Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, in the post since 2012, replaced by Andrei Belousov, an economist and former deputy prime minister. Shoigu apparently being moved to secretary of the security council, where he replaces Nikolai Patrushev, a former FSB director thought to be very close with Putin as well. Patrushev doesn't seem to have a spot in this game of musical chairs thus far.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/put...024-05-12/

Shoigu has been a "weak link" for a very long time. On the one hand Putin wanted a stronger and more capable military. On the other hand, it was clear that Shoigu wasn't ever going to make it happen. The real strategic and tactical decisions were being made elsewhere for a very long time. Undoubtedly Putin wanted to replace Shoigu for at least that period.  Shoigu kept his job because he remained unquestionably loyal to Putin and firing your defense minister when you just had an attempted coup and Ukraine is doing well is a very bad look. Russia is doing well right now so it is not a sign of "panic". He got "promoted" at least partially to minimize his exposure to the fallout of ongoing corruption scandal at the Ministry.

The appointment of an economist is interesting, to say the least. That could just be an over-reaction to the current corruption scandal. It also could be an indication Putin is happy with the command structure he has that operates outside of the Ministry. In the latter case the Ministry may just become the logistics and procurement arm of the government and nothing more. There is a lot of tradition and history that Putin may want to bypass.

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-exploi...24943.html

Repeating what has been said before, with a few recent consequences added. Russia is using their manpower to "stretch" Ukraine. Russia has more coming as the latest draft "class" is probably getting as useful as it ever will be. Using them now makes sense, and gets the ones that survive combat experience. From October through December of last year Russia drafted 130K people. How many the actually got is another question, but by now they are for sure as trained as they are going to be. As the article states, Ukraine can't suddenly raise and train a lot more troops. Their dithering around the draft legislation was certainly understandable, but it unquestionably delayed raising more troops. Things are not going to get better soon it seems.

[Goose]

Interesting shakeup in the Kremlin. Longtime Putin crony and Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, in the post since 2012, replaced by Andrei Belousov, an economist and former deputy prime minister. Shoigu apparently being moved to secretary of the security council, where he replaces Nikolai Patrushev, a former FSB director thought to be very close with Putin as well. Patrushev doesn't seem to have a spot in this game of musical chairs thus far.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/put...024-05-12/

Shoigu has been a "weak link" for a very long time. On the one hand Putin wanted a stronger and more capable military. On the other hand, it was clear that Shoigu wasn't ever going to make it happen. The real strategic and tactical decisions were being made elsewhere for a very long time. Undoubtedly Putin wanted to replace Shoigu for at least that period.  Shoigu kept his job because he remained unquestionably loyal to Putin and firing your defense minister when you just had an attempted coup and Ukraine is doing well is a very bad look. Russia is doing well right now so it is not a sign of "panic". He got "promoted" at least partially to minimize his exposure to the fallout of ongoing corruption scandal at the Ministry.

The appointment of an economist is interesting, to say the least. That could just be an over-reaction to the current corruption scandal. It also could be an indication Putin is happy with the command structure he has that operates outside of the Ministry. In the latter case the Ministry may just become the logistics and procurement arm of the government and nothing more. There is a lot of tradition and history that Putin may want to bypass.

---

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-exploi...24943.html

Repeating what has been said before, with a few recent consequences added. Russia is using their manpower to "stretch" Ukraine. Russia has more coming as the latest draft "class" is probably getting as useful as it ever will be. Using them now makes sense, and gets the ones that survive combat experience. From October through December of last year Russia drafted 130K people. How many the actually got is another question, but by now they are for sure as trained as they are going to be. As the article states, Ukraine can't suddenly raise and train a lot more troops. Their dithering around the draft legislation was certainly understandable, but it unquestionably delayed raising more troops. Things are not going to get better soon it seems.