Russia decides minister of defence be a civilian

It is indeed a surprise. Russia in the midst of an existential war decides a civilian to become minister of defence. Well only Russia has the ability to springs this kind of surprise. The new defence guy is Andrei Belousov

A profile of the defence minister as gleaned from the facts enumerated by twitterati Victor vicktop55 (@vicktop55) is given below

Andrei Belousov after graduating from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University joined the state service and rose in his career thus: 

·        1986 to 2006, worked at the Institute of National Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences

·        2000 to 2006, worked as a freelance adviser to the Prime Minister, while concurrently functioning as leader at the Centre for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting

·        2006 to 2008, served as Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade

·        2008 to 2012, headed the government department of economics and finance

·        2012 to 2013, worked as Minister of Economic Development

·      2013 to 2020, worked as an assistant to the president followed by being appointed as First Deputy Prime Minister of the government.

·        For almost a month, while PM Mishusin was on sick leave acted as prime minister in his place.

Why then a person who has no hands on experience in matters of defence be appointed as defence minister of Russian Federation? Let me read the mind of master strategist Vladimir Putin:

1. Andrei beat the US & the West in the sanctions game. He did not resort to debt financing. In fact he ensured the debt to GDP ratio hovers around 20% securing a top notch place in the European Table

2. Right now the defence budget is around 6% of the GDP. Not too high when compared to the Soviet days of 10% of GDP at the lowest. Lopsided defence expenditure during Soviet times brought its collapse. Hence bringing down the defence expenditure in absolute terms might appear not feasible at this juncture whereas tweaking it with qualitative changes would make it productive. Only a civilian that too an economist can perform this miraculous task. Andrei fits the matrix.

3. Now the critical phase of the defensive posture in Ukraine war is over heralding the offensive phase by bringing in more land to the Russian control is necessitated. Economic development of Novorossiya therefore must be given equal footing to that of Russia proper.

4. In the immediate future Russia must turn the table against the West by making her geoeconomics power centre vibrant with military playing equally important role as does economics. Integration of economics with military and the connected political structure is vital for the people and the government of Russia.

5. Therefore, I as the President of the Russian Federation appoints Andrei Belousov as the Defence Minister of Russia!

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff Rajulu

Business Strategist

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E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com

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