Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved his longtime ally Sergei Shoigu from the defense ministry to Russia’s powerful Security Council amid a government reshuffle.
Russian economist Andrei Belousov is set to be Russia’s new defense minister, while Shoigu will replace Nikolai Patrushev, another long-standing Putin ally, at the Security Council. Patrushev will be given another role, the Kremlin said.
Shoigu had headed the defense ministry since 2012, going in to the role with no military experience, and oversaw Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Putin has remained loyal to Shoigu, although Russia’s military leadership during the war has been criticized by some Russian commentators, the most high-profile of whom was Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group of Russian mercenary fighters. Prigozhin died last August in a plane crash; the Kremlin denied any involvement in his death.
The appointment of Belousov, former minister of economic development, is bound to raise eyebrows in military circles but comes as Putin looks to cement Russia’s economy on a war footing and defense spending surges.
In other news, Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday claimed more advances in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine after Russian forces launched a new offensive in the northeastern region.
Ukraine says it prevented Russian ‘terrorist attacks’ in Kyiv on May 9
Ukraine’s security services on Monday said they had prevented “terrorist attacks” by alleged Russian agents in Kyiv that were meant to take place on May 9.
Explosive devices were meant to be detonate in several locations in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, including shops, the country’s security services said in a Google-translated Telegram post.
“Improvised explosive devices were disguised in tea packages. They consisted of a timer, a detonator and plastic explosives with an incendiary mixture that was supposed to cause large-scale fires,” the post said. The explosives were meant to detonate during peak hours, it added.
Explosives were allegedly also meant to be installed in a car that was to be parked near a popular cafe, the security services said.
Ukrainian security services used counter-intelligence to identify the man behind the planned attack, they said in another Telegram post.
“He personally gave instructions to the recruited agents and even recorded video instructions for installing an explosive device in one of the stores of the same chain in the Moscow region,” the post said.
The alleged Russian agent had also planned an attack that was meant to take place in February, which was also thwarted by Ukrainian security services, they said.
Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General on Monday said two people had been detained regarding the attempted attacks. One was charged with treason and attempted sabotage, while the other was charged with “an unfinished attempt to commit a terrorist act,” the office said in a Google-translated Telegram post, adding that investigations were ongoing.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
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