Who is Russia’s new Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, Putin’s surprise choice

Moscow:

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a surprise new defense minister, naming civilian Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister specializing in economics, to the post, more than two years after the start of the war in Ukraine, he said. the Kremlin.

Below are some facts about Andrei Removich Belousov:

* Belousov, 65 years old, graduated with honors from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University in 1981. He defended his dissertation on the topic “An imitative approach to modeling interrelated processes for the formation and use of working capital” .

* In 2000, Belousov was appointed non-staff advisor to the Russian prime minister and joined the Ministry of Economy as deputy minister six years later. From 2008 to 2012, he was director of the economics and finance department of the government apparatus, in the same years that Putin served as prime minister.

* In 2012, he was appointed Minister of Economy. From 2013 to 2020, Belousov served as an advisor to the Russian president. As of 2020, he has served as First Deputy Prime Minister. When Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin got COVID in 2020, Belousov briefly took over the duties of Prime Minister while Mishustin improved.

* In 2017, Russian media outlet RBC said Belousov was one of those responsible for convincing Putin that the digital economy and blockchain were crucial for the future.

* “I can say that what a country with sovereignty should definitely have is the possession of its own meanings. Who are we, where did we come from, where are we going? or reproduce that identity,” Belousov told RBC in an interview in 2023.

* According to RBC, he practiced sambo and karate in his youth and did not serve in the Armed Forces. He is believed to be close to Putin.

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