Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed 12 new deputy defense ministers on Monday, including a cousin, in a veritable purge of generals and officials detained on corruption charges, following the dismissal of Sergei Shoigu.
The first wave of changes occurred in mid-May, when the head of the Kremlin, a few days after taking office for a fifth term, replaced Shoigu, in office since 2012, with an economist with no military experience, Andrei Belousov.
Vladimir Putin justified the sudden reshuffle by the need to improve military spending, which had risen to support the needs of the military in Ukraine.
Since then, at least five generals or officials, including members of the former minister’s family, have been arrested on corruption charges, in an example of the rise of technocratic power within the Kremlin’s military apparatus.
Among the 12 deputy ministers appointed today by presidential decree, Anna Tsivlyova, Vladimir Putin’s cousin, who is subject to British and European Union sanctions, stands out.
This relative of the Russian President has until now been in charge of the important Defenders of the Fatherland Fund, created in 2023, whose goal is officially to provide personal social support to veterans of the conflict in Ukraine and families of soldiers who died in the conflict.
Tsevilyova will be responsible for all issues related to social assistance to military personnel, according to the Ministry of Defense.
Also on the list is the name of Pavel Fradkov, son of former Prime Minister (2004-2007) and Director of Foreign Intelligence (SVR) between 2007 and 2016, Mikhail Fradkov, who will be in charge of the construction sector of the army.
Former Finance Ministry official Leonid Gornin was also appointed First Deputy Minister of Defense.
Corruption in the upper echelons of the Russian military – which has become endemic since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 – was one of the loudest criticisms voiced by the head of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was the originator of a failed mutiny in Russia in June 2023 and died in a plane crash. After two months.
The Kremlin has rejected any idea of a purge, stressing that it is merely the result of an anti-corruption operation.
Since coming to power nearly a quarter of a century ago, Vladimir Putin has surrounded himself with many close friends, especially since his years in the KGB and later as mayor of St. Petersburg in the 1990s.
In recent years, several members of his family have been appointed to positions of political and administrative responsibility.
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