According to a newly announced decree, Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed former Deputy Minister of Economy, Oleg Savelyev, as the Deputy Minister of Defense on Monday, May 20th. This move further indicates Putin’s intention to enhance the efficiency of Russia’s wartime economy.
Savelyev worked at the Ministry of Economy from 2008 to 2014 and briefly served as the deputy to the then Minister of Economy, Andrei Belousov. After Russia annexed Crimea, Savelyev served as the Minister of Crimean Affairs from 2014 to 2015. For the past five years, he has been an auditor at the Russian Audit Chamber, responsible for overseeing national defense and security expenditures.
Last week, Putin unexpectedly dismissed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and replaced him with economist and former Deputy Prime Minister Belousov. This move is widely seen as a means to extract more value from defense spending and combat corruption within the defense ministry.
During wartime, the Russian Defense Minister must oversee substantial financial flows, economic, and industrial planning, while delegating day-to-day battlefield management to others. Belousov’s track record of being able to raise approximately 300 billion rubles (around 3 billion U.S. dollars) through aggressive taxation on businesses likely left a lasting impression on President Putin.
For many, the choice of Belousov as Defense Minister signifies Putin’s reshaping of Russia in the face of the long-running conflict with Ukraine. U.S. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel responded to Putin’s defense minister selection by stating, “Our view is that this further underscores Putin’s determination to maintain his aggressive war against Ukraine at any cost, a war that has severely drained Russia’s economy, with heavy losses suffered by the Russian military, with estimates of casualties reaching as high as 315,000.”
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Western countries have imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on Moscow, aiming to cut off Russia’s sources of funding to pressure Putin to cease the war. The U.S. and European countries have also imposed sanctions on entities and individuals aiding Russia in bypassing sanctions.