During the 36-hour armed uprising that rocked Russia this weekend, two officials key to the waging of President Vladimir V. Putin’s war in Ukraine were conspicuously absent: the Minister of State room Sergei K. Shoigu and General Valery V. Gerasimov, the Kremlin’s top military commander.
But now, as Mr. Putin seeks to project an image of stability and control restored, he has put his defense minister on display, even when Shoigu is not speaking in public or not even hear the speech.
A voiceless video of Mr Shoigu visiting military posts was released Monday morning in what some Kremlin watchers interpreted as a tacit sign of support for him. Some military bloggers were quick to point out that the video appeared to have been shot on Friday, before the armed uprising led by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group.
Shoigu was also present on Monday when Putin convened a meeting with his top security commanders. Footage broadcast on state television showed him sitting around a table, head bowed and arms crossed.
On Tuesday, when Putin praised his security forces in a grandly choreographed speech, Mr. Shoigu appeared again, wearing a military uniform. Shoigu then had a meeting with his Cuban counterpart at Russia’s Center for Defense Control.
“Given that the United States has implemented an illegal and illegal economic and trade blockade against Cuba for decades, we stand ready to help the Freedom Island, to our Cuban friends. borrow a shoulder,” said Shoigu, referring to Russia’s Zvezda TV military channel.
Mr. Shoigu and General Gerasimov are considered Putin’s trusted allies, but in recent months they have barely appeared in public and appeared only elaborately, while Mr. Prigozhin announced the details. videos of himself on the front lines among the corpses, with explosions exploding in the distance.
Mr. Prigozhin has repeatedly and publicly criticized both men and complained that they have caused some problems for the Russian military. Other prominent Russian leaders have also criticized Mr. Shoigu and General Gerasimov.
In October, after Russia withdrew from the Ukrainian city of Lyman, Ramzan Kadyrov, the powerful leader of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya – who controlled his own paramilitary force – Written on the messaging app Telegram that Russia’s top military official had “covered up” an “incompetent” general who should now be “sent to the front to wash his name with blood.”
Andrei Guryulov, a hard-line member of the Russian parliament from the ruling United Russia party, decried the military leadership at the same time.
“The whole problem is not in the field, but in the Frunzenskaya embankment, where they still do not understand and have not mastered the situation,” he said, referring to the position of the Ministry of Defense. “Until something completely different appears in the General Staff, nothing will change.”
Even Putin’s staunch ally, Aleksandr Dugin, whose daughter was killed last fall by a car bombcalled Putin and President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus “heroes,” but not naming them appears to blame Shoigu and General Gerasimov’s supporters for Wagner’s uprising.
Mr Dugin wrote on Telegram on Monday: “Those who made this situation possible, those who committed it and were unable to prevent it, and when it all started, unable to respond satisfactorily, must suddenly say goodbye.”
Mr. Shoigu, who was a famous emergency minister before becoming defense minister in 2012, enjoys a long and friendly relationship with Mr. Putin. Long before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the two were regularly photographed hunting, fishing, and mushroom picking. Before Putin’s birthday in 2019, they vacationed together in Russia’s vast taiga, going on long hikes. But he never served in the military, which sparked outrage among his critics.
General Gerasimov is considered an adept military man, although at the time of his appointment, some analysts suggested that the Kremlin was seeking to streamline military decision-making and appointed him with the hope Expect a leader who is willing to take decisions directly from the top. top. He hasn’t spoken in public since the uprising.
Mr. Putin could have kept both men in charge as part of him efforts spanning decades to put Russia’s vast army under his control.
“It is a Russian paradox,” said Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russia’s security services.
Mr. Putin “needs a rather weak and compromising person to represent the military politically,” he added, “because what he remembers about the recent rise of history over the past 30 years is that Even the most catastrophic wars produce famous generals.”
Oleg Matsnev contribution report.
