Throughout the 36-hour armed rebel that shook Russia this weekend, two officers key to waging President Vladimir V. Putin’s warfare in Ukraine have been manifestly absent: Defense Minister Sergei Ok. Shoigu and Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, the Kremlin’s high navy commander.
But now, as Mr. Putin seeks to challenge a picture of restored stability and management, he has been placing his protection minister on show, even when Mr. Shoigu has not addressed the general public and even been heard talking.
A soundless video of Mr. Shoigu visiting navy positions was launched on Monday morning in what some Kremlin watchers interpreted as a tacit signal of assist for him. Some navy bloggers have been fast to level out that the video appeared to have been shot on Friday, earlier than the armed rebel led by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the founding father of the Wagner mercenary group.
Mr. Shoigu was additionally current on Monday as Mr. Putin convened a gathering of his high safety chiefs. Footage performed on state tv confirmed him sitting round a desk together with his head bowed and his fingers folded.
On Tuesday, as Mr. Putin praised his safety forces in a grandly choreographed speech, Mr. Shoigu was once more current, sporting his navy uniform. Later, Mr. Shoigu held a gathering together with his Cuban counterpart on the National Defense Control Center of Russia.
“In conditions when the United States has been carrying out an illegal and illegitimate trade and economic blockade of Cuba for many decades, we are ready to help the Island of Freedom, lend a shoulder to our Cuban friends,” Mr. Shoigu stated, in line with the Russian navy channel Zvezda TV.
Mr. Shoigu and General Gerasimov are thought-about trusted allies of Mr. Putin, however previously months they’ve largely stayed out of public view and have made solely extremely choreographed appearances, whereas Mr. Prigozhin printed movies of himself on the entrance line amid corpses, with explosions booming within the distance.
Mr. Prigozhin has repeatedly and publicly criticized each males and complained that they’ve prompted a few of the Russian navy’s issues. Other distinguished Russian leaders have additionally criticized Mr. Shoigu and General Gerasimov.
In October, after Russia’s retreat from the Ukrainian metropolis of Lyman, Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman chief of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya — who controls his personal paramilitary power — wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Russia’s high navy brass had “covered for” an “incompetent” common who ought to now be “sent to the front to wash his shame off with blood.”
Andrei Guryulov, a hard-line member of Russia’s Parliament from the ruling United Russia celebration, disparaged the navy management across the similar time.
“The whole problem is not on the ground, but on the Frunzenskaya embankment, where they still do not understand, and do not take ownership of the situation,” he stated, referring to the placement of the Defense Ministry. “Until something completely different appears in the General Staff, nothing will change.”
Even the staunch Putin ally Aleksandr Dugin, whose daughter was killed final autumn by a automobile bomb, referred to as Mr. Putin and President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus “heroes,” however with out naming them appeared to forged blame on supporters of Mr. Shoigu and General Gerasimov for the Wagner rebel.
“Those who made this situation possible, who committed it, and who could not prevent it, and when it all began, were unable to adequately respond, must be said goodbye to abruptly,” Mr. Dugin wrote on Telegram on Monday.
Mr. Shoigu, who was a very talked-about minister of emergency conditions earlier than turning into protection minister in 2012, has had an extended and pleasant relationship with Mr. Putin. Long earlier than the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the 2 have been repeatedly photographed looking, fishing and selecting mushrooms. Ahead of Mr. Putin’s birthday in 2019, they vacationed collectively within the huge Russian taiga, taking lengthy hikes. But he has by no means served within the navy, which has been a reason for resentment amongst his critics.
General Gerasimov is seen as a consummate navy man, although some analysts recommended on the time of his appointment that the Kremlin was trying to streamline navy decision-making and had appointed him within the hopes of getting a pacesetter prepared to hold out selections coming instantly from the highest. He has not spoken in public for the reason that revolt.
Mr. Putin might have stored each males in cost as a part of his decades-long efforts to put the sprawling Russian navy extra beneath his management.
“It’s a Russian paradox,” stated Andrei Soldatov, an knowledgeable on the Russian safety companies.
Mr. Putin “needs someone quite weak and compromised to represent the military politically,” he added, “because what he remembers about the recent rise of history in the last 30 years is that even the most disastrous of wars produce popular generals.”
Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.
Source: www.nytimes.com