PUTIN JUDO-CHOPS SHOIGU
BUT FAILS TO DELIVER THE KNOCK-OUT BLOW
Russian President Vladimir Putin has nominated Andrei Belousov for Minister of Defense.
This means that in the very near future, Sergei Shoigu will not be Defense Minister.
Instead, Shoigu will serve as Secretary of the Security Council.
This means that Nikolai Patrushev will no longer be the head of the Security Council.
This is meaningful.
The #1 Meaning is that you should always read Edward Slavsquat.
Is Putin going to sack Shoigu?
(Full disclosure: I actually didn’t think Putin would replace Shoigu, although I wrote about this possibility because patriotic Russian media thought otherwise, and I thought that was meaningful. This proves that I’m a blogger of boundless integrity.)
By the way: who the heck is Andrei Belousov?
Probably you have never heard of him. To be perfectly honest, even your omnipotent Russia correspondent has only encountered Mr. Belousov’s name in passing. I guess we will have to crowd-source a dossier on this guy. In the meantime, here is a bio provided by RIA Novosti:
Andrey Belousov has been in public service since 2006.
In 2006-2008 he was Deputy Minister of Economic Development. In 2008-2012, Belousov became director of the Department of Economics and Finance of the Russian government. In 2012-2013, he took the post of Minister of Economic Development.
On June 24, 2013, Belousov became assistant to the president; on June 13, 2018, he was reassigned to this post. On January 21, 2020, Andrei Belousov received the position of First Deputy Prime Minister.
So he’s been around for a long time and has been a member of Putin’s inner circle for at least a decade.
Noted.
(The rest of the Russian government remains virtually unchanged, and the “new” cabinet of ministers—an all-star team of turbo-patriots—has listed “digital transformation” as a top priority. Hooray.)
I have a long list of thoughts about these developments. But it’s 5 am Village Time; I have to shovel manure, and then feed the puppies, and then buy a chainsaw, and then mend a fence so that the goats stop escaping and eating the neighbor’s garden. The neighbors don’t like that very much.
I’ll be back tomorrow with some piercing insights.
Until then, what’s your hot take? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? COUGH IT UP.
P.S. — thank you to my beguiling and extremely generous paid subs for participating in DECISION 2024: NAME MY PUPPY.
They named him Barin (Барин).
Say hi to Барин.
All this is mere theatre. Nothing has fundamentally changed. Nothing will fundamentally change until the Russian people wake up and realize they're being fucked over by psychopaths.
The SMO could have been over in 1 week. This latest move is to give the illusion that Putin is doing everything he can to win the war.
I have a question for the people of the world: If you think politicians are corrupt, why do you keep voting for them? Is it because you, yourself, are corrupt? Or is it because you are moron?
https://www.reviewofreligions.org/45211/the-collapse-of-dollar-hegemony-could-lead-to-world-war-iii-interview-with-finance-expert-richard-c-cook/
"RCC: The problem here are the words ‘adversaries’ and ‘enemies.’ Who says so? Personally, I have no ‘adversaries’ or ‘enemies.’ These are buzzwords used by governments to get people to kill other people and to get themselves killed. Why? So the fat cats can make money. It’s been that way for a long time, but it doesn’t have to be that way any longer. We have the knowledge and the understanding today to stop wars. Of course, there will always be competition, and some people will still try to cheat their competitors. So, we still need a system of law enforcement. But we don’t have to kill each other so the rich can get richer. "
The money made into war is supposed to be invested in the high tech nightmare...