Vladimir Putin appointed former Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev as his assistant, according to the Kremlin website. He appointed Tula Governor Alexei Dyumin, who had previously worked in the Presidential Security Service, to a similar position.
The resignation of Nikolai Patrushev was announced on the evening of May 12. Former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was then appointed to his position.
Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov later commented on Patrushev's appointment at a briefing with journalists. According to him, Patrushev, a former director of the FSB and a former secretary of the Security Council, will deal with “shipbuilding issues.”
“This, of course, is of a slightly different nature, but this is an absolutely strategic industry, a huge industry, very complex, and therefore, of course, the experience, the vast experience of Nikolai Platonovich will definitely play a big role here,” Peskov said.
Putin proposed appointing former Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov as the new Minister of Defense instead of Shoigu. His candidacy has not yet been approved.
Sergei Shoigu’s resignation was preceded by the arrest of his deputy Timur Ivanov in a bribery case at the end of April. Yesterday it also became known about the persecution under the same article of another high-ranking leader of the Ministry of Defense — the head of the personnel department of the Ministry of Defense Yuri Kuznetsov.
Instead of Dyumin, his first deputy, the former mayor of Tula Dmitry Milyaev, became the acting governor of the Tula region.
Instead of Dyumin, his first deputy, the former mayor of Tula, became the acting governor of the Tula region.
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Updated at 12:43. Added commentary by Dmitry Peskov.