Seems like Shoigu has been demoted and changed for a Civilian from the closer Putin's economic circle.
My guess is that the war is going so well and corruption is so under control that Putin has taken this decision based on the armpit smell of Shoigu and not because he is an absolute incompetent in war, but very extremely competent in sending unequipped troops while filling his banks accounts with the money that should have provided the equipment.
The Minister of Defense should be a civilian; in fact, he is a supply manager. In Russia, the Minister of Defense has been a civilian since 2001 (Shoigu is also a civilian). The current Minister of Defense of Ukraine seems to also be a civilian. Almost all defense ministers in Europe are civilians.My guess is that the war is going so well and corruption is so under control that Putin has taken this decision based on the armpit smell of Shoigu and not because he is an absolute incompetent in war, but very extremely competent in sending unequipped troops while filling his banks accounts with the money that should have provided the equipment.
Military operations are led by the General Staff, the Chief of the General Staff is still Gerasimov.
Shoigu civilian? ... well, short of...
Quote
Shoigu received the rank of major general in 1993,[12] and was promoted swiftly to lieutenant general in 1995,[13] colonel general in 1998,[14] and to army general, in practice the highest Russian military rank, in 2003.[15]
All those a military ranks, he wears mostly military uniforms and - me not an expert - seems to carry around quite a bit of cheap metal in the chest quite military looking. I guess he is not properly a military grown in the lower ranks if that's your point.
A "supply manager" ... he certainly manages the supplies here and there yes
