Welcome Adolfs best friend and architect, Albert Speer, who became Minister of armamanents in 1942 which also was a surprise for all. Putin has found a new minister to fix the supply chain issues and production issues but has no military clue. Will become funny how the general staff will behave after not having been elected.
My name is Thiago, i'm from Brasil. Is it wrong to think that Putin and the oligarchs are in route of collision? What the oligarchs can do against Putin ? Thanks for your excellent job!
If I correctly took Konstantin's point, Belousov is a guy whose knowledge of finances comes exclusively from having obtained an economics degree in . . . Soviet economics; and his main recently demonstrated skill seems to be not in competently managing a functioning economy but merely in extorting money from producers, mafia-style. If that is the case,. then he can be expected not only to contribute nothing much to the Russian military capacity but also to accelerate the death-spiral of the Russian economy by bleeding it dry. Too many Western media seem to have become fixated on Belousov's supposed status as an 'economist', when in fact he is something else entirely: he is the soviet idea of an economist. If he is, he sounds very much like the doom of both the Russian military and the Russian economy, and things are indeed looking up.
Doesn’t sound too different from the government approach to the economy in the UK - just get as much money out of it as you can for the government to squander and misappropriate and to hell with the consequences.
correct; to paraphrase "russia is its own world where normal rules do not apply". you hit the nail on the head that western analysts look at russia in the prism of western culture and norms, and that is simply wrong. for starters, what western country would do WW1 era infantry pushes with attendant casualties - could you see France, UK, Poland, Romania, Turkey doing that? The gov would fall next day.
I would like to correct you, it was Belousov who was responsible for restructuring the Russian economy in 2022 and putting it on a war footing, as a result Russian economy withstood nuclear strike (now 16,000 sanctions have been imposed against Russia) and it not only survived, but is still growing. Belousov had no influence on the army, he only dealt with civil economics. Today all chains(include military economic chains, military factories etc) are in his hands, now Belousov has all the levers to control the army, decide for yourself whether it’s good or bad.
@@bushwalker6214 There´s a world out there. Not all media function like the American ones. Still some independent media in my country. That said, most of them really don´t give as good and easy-to-understand explanations as Konstantin does.
@@NotUnymous Yeah, there are good independent journalists out there. The problem is that journalists use a specific language in a lot of countries. (Not in all countries, Latvia and Estonia don´t really have a journalism jargon). And the Russian politics, and world events in general, are so complicated that it´s much better to use a simpler language and explanation style, and add some fun trivia, if you want people to understand. A lot of journalists use their usual style for Russian and world politics, and that makes them harder to understand.
@@bushwalker6214 It's not hard to find the brainwashed americans under every freaking video... Damn you people must be so proud to shout this garbage out so freely...
Putin:: "This war is costing me a fortune! I NEED someone who can do some "Economic Forecasting" so I know when the money will all run out! I know!... hire Andrei Belousov!"
A New Six-Year Term for Vladimir Putin Begins Amid Scandals and Purges in a Key Ministry and an Inevitable Struggle Over the Huge Military Budget As usual in Russia, there is another paradox. Today, almost a year after the uprising and eight months after the execution of Yevgeny Prigozhin, and four months after the assassination of Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin is starting to implement their ideas. Prigozhin wanted to hang them. Years ago, Navalny accused Minister Sergey Shoigu and his general clan of large-scale corruption. He showed how the head of the ministry and his cronies lived in grand style, far beyond their means. After Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation scrutinized the minister, it was said that Prigozhin himself might have helped with the investigation. When Putin's "chef" Prigozhin, with his "Wagnerites," took over Rostov-on-Don last June and marched on Moscow with the "March of Justice," he rebelled not against the tsar but against the minister and generals whom he accused of robbing the army, not supplying the front with equipment and ammunition, and thus being responsible for the unnecessary deaths of many soldiers. Prigozhin did not march to Moscow to stage an armed coup. He intended to conduct a people's court in the presence of the Kremlin's master over his uniformed boyars, and then hang Shoigu, his deputy Timur Ivanov, and others on Red Square. However, they turned out to be stronger then. A few days ago, Shoigu lost his ministerial seat, which he had occupied for 12 years thanks to his cunning and friendship with Putin. In the ministry located on Moscow's New Arbat, known as the "Arbat Military District" and governed by its own laws, the purge is gaining momentum. Shoigu's deputy, Tatiana Shevtsova, asked for her resignation. The other deputies are also reportedly writing their reports. Rumor has it that even Igor Konashenkov, the defense ministry's spokesperson who lied daily about the army's successes on the Ukrainian front, earning himself a lieutenant general's star, is packing up. Shoigu is leaving, and Russia is preparing for a bigger war. The arrest of Timur Ivanov, Shoigu's deputy, on corruption charges shook the Russian public opinion significantly. His Rolls-Royce, which he used to drive his wives during vacations in Saint-Tropez or another Courchevel, captured the imagination of his compatriots. After all, given his rank and position, he had no right to enjoy himself in the West, which he should have loathed due to his official duties. He couldn't be there because the sanctions imposed by Europe also prohibited it. Most importantly, as an official with access to state secrets, he was not allowed to wander around hostile territory for private purposes. And yet he did, ostentatiously squandering millions there. The depth of the moral rot in the army's leadership is illustrated by the way Yuri Kuznetsov, the recently dismissed and also arrested head of the defense ministry's personnel department, earned his living. Previously, he headed the 8th Department of the General Staff, established to protect state secrets. He traded the most valuable asset he had, which was precisely those secrets. Only those who passed a tedious verification process could become executors of the highly paid orders of the defense ministry and special services, proving they were trustworthy enough to be officially granted access to state secrets. With Kuznetsov, the guardian of the homeland's secrets, such a certificate could be purchased. Cheaply. As "Novaya Gazeta Europe" writes, for one percent of the contract's sum. One could also buy a denial of access to secrets. Anyone who had a chance to sign a profitable contract with the ministry could pay to prevent competitors from accessing classified information. Another service could be paid for by someone who desperately wanted to visit a place like Saint-Tropez but couldn't due to their knowledge of state secrets. It was enough to obtain a certificate stating that the individual had no contact with classified information. The Ministry of Defense turns out to be quite the Augean stables. As Moscow's "Kommersant" writes, last year, the Russian Financial Monitoring Service questioned 2,000 contracts related to the ministry's orders. Fifty thousand companies were involved in suspicious transactions. Dear Russians The Kremlin has begun to acknowledge that the war with Ukraine is expensive. Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Russia's military spending would approach what he called the "critical level" of the mid-1980s, which was "7.4 percent of GDP" (he got it wrong, as the USSR at that time spent 15 percent of its product on arms and security, which led to its ruin). However, the Kremlin's master himself has just said that the Russian Federation is already allocating 8.7 percent of GDP to defense and security, a third more than planned for this year. It is expensive partly because Russians have suddenly become expensive. Specifically, soldiers. The country has had cannon fodder practically for free for centuries. A conscript called up for mandatory military service is entitled to a salary of less than 100 zlotys. A contract soldier, however, goes to the front for the equivalent of 2,000 dollars, which is as much as a private in the US army gets. For his death on the battlefield, the family receives 130,000 dollars, more than the relatives of a fallen American. Meanwhile, Russian generals squander expensive and scarce (also for demographic reasons) human material like Stalin's marshals, using up more in a month than Americans have lost in all their anti-terrorist wars in recent decades. The war is more expensive than Moscow calculated because, due to sanctions imposed on Russia, what is imported for the defense industry goes through numerous intermediaries, each of whom must get their share. Added to this is enormous corruption, confirming the old truth that it is easy to steal on a grand scale during wartime. New Broom and Clans The new head of the defense ministry, former Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, is supposed to be the fresh broom that will clean up the "Arbat Military District." However, it will not be easy to bring order and balance, as the generals, who form the ministry's backbone, will defend their positions and, above all, their illicit incomes. According to Putin, the turmoil in the war ministry will not affect the situation at the front, which is still under the responsibility of the same General Staff. But this is rather wishful thinking. Problems also arise from the change in the Federation Council, where Sergey Shoigu, removed from the Ministry of Defense, replaced Nikolai Patrushev, who had led it for 16 years. Under the previous head, the Council was "Putin's politburo," which met every Saturday in the presence of the Kremlin's master to devise the state's strategy. In Russia, the importance of an institution often depends on the "weight" of its head. The "shot down" Shoigu does not have the authority and influence of Patrushev, to whom many people in the services owed their careers and who formulated the conservative state ideology close to Putin with his backward views. It is unclear whether the Security Council will remain the "politburo" under Shoigu or if another institution will have to take on this role. Who Will Overturn the Chessboard? Tensions in Moscow are also rising due to the West's changing approach to the war in Ukraine. Russians have become accustomed to threatening their partners, hinting at escalation, and pretending they are about to "overturn the chessboard." The fact that people like Emmanuel Macron or Alexander Stubb, the President of Finland, have started talking to them in this style is an unpleasant surprise for Russian politicians. In Moscow, they expected that the West, and especially the USA, would not support Ukraine with equipment and money. When the opposite happened, the General Staff hastily, regardless of enormous losses, aimed to capture as many completely destroyed Ukrainian villages and towns as possible before aid reached the opponent's army. Besides Shoigu and Patrushev's dismissal and Belousov's appointment, Putin made another personnel change that many Moscow observers deemed very important. Political scientist Vladimir Pastukhov predicted in advance that if the Kremlin's master brought Alexei Dyumin, the governor of Tula, to Moscow, it would be a sign that he expected the new term to be "difficult." And so it happened. Putin's former bodyguard, commander of the Special Operations Forces that occupied Crimea 10 years ago, and former deputy defense minister became an important assistant to the state leader responsible for the arms industry. And this is again something Prigozhin would have wanted, as he saw Dyumin as a good candidate for defense minister. The Fifth Commandment: Kill. Cyril as the Patriarch of Orthodox Jihad It is hard to say why Putin brought to Moscow a man many consider his potential successor. Does he want to have him by his side in case of trouble or keep an eye on him to prevent Dyumin from causing trouble? When shortly after the inauguration, Patriarch Cyril blessed Putin, he surprised everyone by wishing him to rule "until the end of his days." Why did he do that? The church leader is too smart and too high-ranking to simply express his boundless loyalty to the ruler this way. Rather, he took a stand and opposed something he feared himself.
One thing I've learned from Russian politics is to judge from the deeds and totally disregard the words. If this guy is totally owned - body and soul, by Putin, then his policies can and will change according to the whims of his political master.
*I personally believe that Belousov was appointed as an economic expert to root out corruption. A bit like Albert Speer was appointed in Germany in 1942 to boost production. Shoigu, on the other hand, was rather promoted to secretary of the Security Council. The most interesting thing is what happens to Patrushev. To the man who hired a mind reader to read Madeleine Albright's thoughts that the USA wants to take over Siberia. In addition, Patrushev's son, Dmitri, has even been rumored to be Putin's successor.*
A spineless administrator. If I was living for a year in a stinking death pit in Ukraine I’d now know for sure I was dying for nothing & surrender after this speech.
There is an army flash mob in his support and shoigu leaving his post was met positively by most, he is one of the most hated ministers One of belousov main thesis was “mistakes are forgivable, but lies are not”, and there are several arrests made for corrupt high ranking officers and officials from ministry of defence immediately after belousov was put in charge.
Ensuring access to medical care by injured military personnel is also critical to moral in both the member and his family. Not providing proper care will spread virally through the family network and cause many to avoid service. Would any sensible Russian mother want to send off her son to war knowing that if he gets injured he will not receive proper care? I can see a resistance movement growing out of such a problem.
Removing a military leader might be reminiscent of Hitler, who overruled his generals as the war turned against the Nazis? If so, as happened in WW2, is this the end game for the Russian military forced to take action irrespective of losses or strategic gains?
It's not unique to Hitler. It's actually quite common for military leaders to get removed/fired during major wars. Both the USA and USSR did this during WW2.
Stalin acted started as a stupid supreme commander and learned the hard way to leave matters to Zhukov and his men. Hope this will not happen this time.
The previous country to do something this extreme was Ukraine, last year. At first, it was reported that he was fired, then they said he was promoted to a diplomatic position. IDK what will be the fallout from this - I assume the Russian "Spring offensive" was planned before this move. Personally, I think the Kremlin will order their troops to do offensive things whether it's Shoigu or Belousev.
My interpretation is that Shoigu was spending way too much, and it could not be sustained. So Putin wants someone to do the same job, just cheaper. Hence, the bean counter boss.
I am speculating with no real data, here, but: Perhaps Putin saw Shoigu as a threat, and that caused Putin to separate Shoigu from power. Belousov's longevity hinges on his ability to appear to be loyal and benign. The welfare of the troops is always a popular topic, but if Putin perceives Belousov is becoming *too* popular with the troops, it will be time for him to play Superman flying out of a window.
I must put 👍. Good video because it even made me think about things. Konstantin: Even though I don't always agree with you on everything, I have to say completely honestly that you know how to bring things up. You have a calm voice, you think lot about things, you bring up things and/or perspectives that we wouldn't necessarily think of. Thank you & Greetings! Adapted: Must say you are doing really, really hard work. Every day you give your all, in many different ways. I have to appreciate that👍!
They call Belousov "Putin's Albert Speer". If this would be true, this would be actually really bad news for Ukraine. I hope you are right. Thank you for keeping our hopes alive!
Minister of Defense being a civilian acts as a buffer between the military and government. If a general was given ultimate control of the military, the military would be his to control, but a loyalist to Putin means Putin has the ultimate control of the military.
Agreed. Belousov's appointment makes perfect sense since war is primarily about industry and economy. Not to mention that the liberal technocratic types seem to be much more competent than the siloviki.
from that speech I suppose Putin needs to answer the many complaints of problems of the veterans coming home lacking benefits so to bolster the home front confidence and get more solders volunteers
Real economist will see Ukraine war is costly and unproductive, you can fix a money pit. As soon as Belousov tells Putin that the war in Ukraine is what putting Russia in the poor house, Belousov will flying out of a window.
@@BBradshawProductions Good point, but what indicates, that the Putin gouvernment cares for any kind of civil growth? Just squeeze the national potential for armory?!
commentators in Poland say that it is actually not good for Ukraine, because Belousov is a guy who knows finances and is supposed to stop the escape of money from the Russian army (fight corruption). More money for the army - more weapons and money for buing new soldiers.
to fight corruption you have to start at the head, which is Putin. they will just make a show of swapping out individuals to different posts, jailing others, but the self-serving kleptocracy will carry on business as usual.
Yeah, I'm worried too. It sounds like they are appointing an actual minister for defence rather than what they had before, a civilian klutz that dressed up in military clothes and commanded the military around without any knowledge (sounds way better for Ukraine). But I still hope it's good for 🇺🇦 💪
It may be good for Ukraine, but it's also good for Putin. He's digging in like a tick. A quarter century in power teaches you a few things about calculation I suppose. Thanks Konstantin, very sharp analysis.
I have heard the opinion that Belousov was hired as an essentially a crisis manager to reduce spending (read: corruption) in the military. Earlier it was like: you get 1 million dollars, you steal 500 000 and put the remaining 500 000 into production Now you would only be able to pocket 200 000. The problem is: in order to get that 1000 000 you would have to spend twice the time and do twice the paperwork which severely increases the lag between an order and the realisation
Military moral is greatly affected by things like not being paid. This problem can be overcome simply by instigating electronic transfers. This allows access to the solder pay by himself and his family. It also reduces the ability of commanding officers for stealing money from the troops.
The new defence minister seems to regard troop morale as a top priority. If so he's probably right. Whether he actually gets anything done is another matter.
Looks like Putin is concerned about all if those convicts, wounded veterans and angry widows he created by invading Ukraine. Also maybe he has finally gotten some real death tolls and losses too. It will be interesting to see what calls he makes in the war going forward.
See? Dyumin did get in! He's the guy who allegedly saved Putin from a bear, but was smart enough to shoot in the air, not at the bear. Like most Russian mass killers, Putin is sentimental, and Dyumin gets kudos for seeing that. Apparently he was kept warm as governor of Tula, where he was lucky enough to screw up a bit (a Ukrainian drone snuck in and bombed an ammo factory), so Putin didn't feel threatened by any brilliant performance. Luck, or smarts? We'll see in future. Looks like he's being groomed for a higher spot-- perhaps the very top? With Patrushev a chaperone?...
Konstantine...Qustion... Andrei Belousov is more at home with columns of data than of tanks, but he could be key to Moscow’s war effort and a conflict with NATO. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to promote a civilian official to the position of the country’s defense chief by this supposed need to embrace innovation. On the battlefield today, the winner is the one who is more open to innovation and therefore, at this stage, Putin has made a decision for a civilian to head the Defense Ministry. Putin’s choice of this new defense minister shows he’s preparing for possible confrontation with the West. Now, is this Putin’s next bad move or is it purely out of fear for his own position???
There many countries, how their military business is a sacred ground where normal social power can't get their hands on. It's a sacred underground business, "don't ask! just suck up money" industry. The thing is that, in a dictatorial country, there isn't any counter force or system against these crimes.
And in the Russian military the corruption goes down to the private handing out uniforms and gear he extorts money from the conscripts. Sargent sells petrol on the black market and kicks back to commanding officer
Seems to me russians are lemmings. They cant see right and wrong and walk straight into the mess. Same as with Hitler. Germans regret dreadfully, despite the fact that these generations didnt even live in those days.@@INSIDERUSSIA
I watch your postings every day and enjoy them very much. I took three semesters of Russian in college and about all I remember is "koshka na stolye." I know it is as difficult for you to learn English as it was for me to learn Russian, so I am much impressed with your English. That said, I hope you won't feel offended when I correct a minor mistake you make. The proper way to say "I bring you nine news" is "I bring you nine news stories." Better yet, I would say "I bring you the nine news stories I consider to be most important." I worry about your safety and no doubt many of your subscribers worry also. I hope you are taking precautions and thinking about emigrating to a country where you would be safer.
Stalin was responsible for very bad decisions in 1941 but at least started to believe in Zhukov when he eventually stood firm in Moscow and the Germans were driven back in Winter 1941. From 1942 a group of very capable generals started to emerge whom Stalin set against each other to not let grow one singular champion. Still, Zhukov was impossible to get rid of and after Stalins death he was responsible for the big cleansing. I think Shoigu represents General Budyonni, the only real friend of Stalin, but otherwise the most inept of generals. Putin still has a formidable army to wield and enough resources to go all in for a while. He’s playing the long game. I personally think it could be too big a price for Russia to pay but I’m open to see surprises.
With 35 % of RU's federal budget now being spent on defence and security, it makes sense to appoint Belousov in an attempt to make the huge money flows better accounted for and governable. It's not a change in the war approach [like for instance the possible firing of Gerasimov would signal].
I'm not convinced that this is very good news for Ukraine. Why? Because i don't think this will make Russia's army less competent. So much of Russia's mediocre performance in the war has to do with lack of competence in the middle ranks - and I don't see that changing much. For the last few months it seems, the orders from above have been "take land at all costs". And that's been carried out. I guess the hope is that the new Minister for Defense will do something spectacularly stupid, but its hard to imagine what they could do that would be more spectacularly stupid than opening a new front and thus increasing the rate at which they burn through the last of their stockpiles of vehicles. Its a case of you don't notice the fuel tank is empty till you start sucking vapour. Btw a question for Constantine.. do you think Putin is fully aware of just how close he is to burning his last tanks and armored vehicles?
Vertical of power also has another meaning in Russia. It refers to the increased potential that a person has for falling out of a window at the top of a high building.
A nobody collecting 3 billion dollars from Putin's friends - doesn't sound like a nobody to me. What I find strange is that the fate of Patrushev is not discussed.
Belousov seems to be a sacrifical lamb in place of Shoigu. Basically Shoigu is now safe from any consequences of the failed "SMO" yet he still kept some appearance of importance. Belousov seems to me like a secretary. He'll most likely focus on side issues that seem popular to solve (like the mentioned medical issues and benefits) with the people but not with the army. Overall a good change for Ukraine. And if Putin takes charge of the military, it will end like Nazi Germany at the end of WW2, all the generals will be fighting between themselves while trying to look competent.
His main value is “he’s controllable, loyal, and he knows his place.” Konstantin aren’t those the apparent traits that got Putin ushered into politics? We know how that went… oy. Thanks for great video. I was wondering who would be driving the military bus until you explained. Also what he said in boring speech wasn’t terrible if he wasn’t supposed to be minister of defense. Maybe he’ll work on getting military families benefits (such as for those declared lost not dead?) or release some from long service but then we lose some of bravest Putin opposition-wives and mothers of soldiers desperate enough to speak up (though not against war).
it is actually quite interesting. this makes the 2nd critical position being replaced with an economics technocrat in the last week? prime minister and now minister of defense.
Uggh, I hope this new guy is not another Robert McNamara - a graduate of Harvard Business School who later became US secretary of defense in the 1960s. He was famous for seeing the Viet Nam conflict as a business problem that could be solved by applying more "resources".
Hot take: Belousov spoke about constituent services, which is exactly what legislators want to hear. He's a savvy politician. Much like a former deputy mayor, underestimate him at your risk.
I don’t always watch your posts in one sitting but I always watch them you are the best information on what is happening in Russia take care of yourself I much appreciate your posts
I am.so impressed by how much your channel evolved.. First video I saw of you was about you walking around neighborhoods. And getting tea.!!.. loved u back then... years and years ago!!
While several commentators have pointed out that Belousov is a civilian, it's worth noting that Shoigu himself was essentially a civilian dressed as a general. True military brass tends to only consider someone as a military if they went through proper military schooling - attending an officer training school (uchilishche), an academic military institution (akademiya), and for very senior officers, the prestigious Academy of the General Staff. Shoigu's civilian background coupled with his general's regalia was seen by many as somewhat disingenuous by the professional military ranks who followed the institutionalized training paths. Having a civilian serve as the defense minister may even be preferable to having a civilian merely donning a general's uniform. With a civilian in charge, at least, there are no pretenses about their lack of official military training.
@@kjererrt7804 Not at all, Министерство Российской Федерации по делам гражданской обороны, чрезвычайным ситуациям и ликвидации последствий стихийных бедствий it's just like FEMA in the US deals with natural disasters, floods and fires, cleanup of at major incidents etc. Shoigu was/is a civil engineer in military uniform.
@@kjererrt7804 That was pretty much the root cause of the early disaster in the war, the MoD started to fight based on the structure and not using the military doctrine. The FPRI has a good article on it 31/03/2023.
That is the same in the US as well. It's one of the first things that soldiers learn in their training. Illegal orders are not to be followed, and following such an order can lead to the soldier being prosecuted. The concept of "an order is an order" does not exist in the US military.
