Putin’s Soft Spot for His Favorite Crony Is Wrecking His Precious War
With the Russian military stagnating in its invasion of Ukraine and suffering significant losses of men and armaments, many are wondering what happened to the huge sums of money designated by the Kremlin to create a well-trained and well-equipped army. Former Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev provided one answer on Twitter: “The Kremlin spent the last 20 years trying to modernize its military. Much of that budget was stolen and spent on mega-yachts in Cyprus.”
The man responsible for the invasion, Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, who had no prior military service before he assumed his defense post in 2012, bears much of the blame for this alleged thievery and the military’s consequent failings in Ukraine.
More a politician and a friend of the oligarchs than a general, Shoigu began developing a personality cult as Russian Minister of Emergency Situations, a post he held from 1999 to 2012, followed by a brief stint as governor of the Moscow region. The first to appear on the scenes of disaster, he presented himself to the public as a hero who had come to the rescue, just as Putin did when he launched the war in Chechnya. Considered the second most popular public figure in the country, Shoigu was chosen by Putin to lead, along with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the candidates list of the pro-Kremlin United Russia Party for the Duma elections last September and has been mentioned as Putin’s possible successor.