Russian President Putin relieved four deputy defense ministers of their duties on Monday, June 17, and appointed his relatives and confidants to fill the vacancies.
According to a presidential decree issued by the Kremlin on Monday, Putin dismissed deputy defense ministers Nikolai Pankov, Ruslan Tsalikov, Tatiana Shevtsova, and Pavel Popov, appointing Zivileva as deputy defense minister, whom Russian media refers to as Putin’s niece.
The UK imposed sanctions on Zivileva in 2022, calling her “Putin’s first cousin,” while the EU classified her as a “close relative” of Putin.
Zivileva has previously led a large coal company and a government-supported fund that provides support to soldiers’ families involved in operations in Ukraine.
As per the presidential decree, Zivileva, who is married to Energy Minister Sergey Tsivilyov, will be responsible for housing and social service allowances for the military. Putin appointed her last year to lead a national fund aimed at providing financial assistance to Russian soldiers participating in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Pavel Fradkov, son of former Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, has been appointed as deputy defense minister. Fradkov led Russia’s foreign intelligence service for nearly a decade and was one of Putin’s Prime Ministers in the 2000s, while his son was a senior official within Putin’s presidential administration.
Leonid Gornin, deputy minister of finance, will serve as the first deputy defense minister under Defense Minister Andrei Belousov.
Last month, Putin appointed economist and former Deputy Prime Minister Belousov as defense minister, shifting former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to the Russian Security Council. This reorganization followed the arrest of several senior military figures on corruption charges, with external observers suggesting Putin’s move was aimed at placing loyalists in the defense ministry.
Last month, Putin also appointed former Deputy Economics Minister Oleg Savelyev as deputy defense minister.
These changes represent the largest overhaul of the Russian Defense Ministry since Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine in February 2022.
According to Bloomberg, analysts claimed that the purge of senior Russian defense officials indicates Moscow believes it can defeat Ukraine on the battlefield by surpassing Kyiv and its Western supporters in spending and capabilities.
On June 14, Putin outlined conditions for ending the Russo-Ukrainian war, including withdrawing troops from four partially occupied states by Russian forces and agreeing to abstain from joining NATO. The US and Ukraine criticized these ceasefire conditions, with Kyiv calling them “absurd.”
At a two-day diplomatic summit held in Switzerland on June 15, over 100 countries and international organizations attended at the invitation of Ukrainian President Zelensky. Of the 93 participating countries, 80 endorsed a joint communique urging “territorial integrity” for Ukraine as the basis for any peace agreement to end the Russo-Ukrainian war.