Moscow (EFE).- The head of Russian Defense, Sergei Shoigu, the oldest of the country’s ministers, is a great friend of the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, who on several occasions has chosen him as a vacation companion, widely publicized, and until now it had possessed an aura of fireproof.
But his lack of response to the rebellion of the mercenaries of the Wagner Group headed by its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has dealt Shoigu a blow, undoubtedly harder than the setbacks of the Russian Army in Ukraine, for which he and the military leadership They have been harshly criticized from ultra-patriotic sectors.
Shoigu’s performance, or the lack of it, in this crisis has left him in a very bad footing, but it is known that Putin is not fond of making quick decisions and less under the pressure of events, so a dismissal in hot.
General, not serving in the Army
Without serving a single day in the ranks of the Armed Forces, the 68-year-old Defense Minister, a construction engineer by profession, holds the rank of Army General, the highest in the Russian ranks, for which his detractors call him the “cardboard general”.
Originally from the republic of Tuva, in southern Siberia, on the border with Mongolia, he grew up in the family of a local official of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, of which he was also a member and who became the springboard of his meteoric career.
At the age of 35, he was transferred to Moscow in 1990, where he assumed the vice-presidency of the State Committee for Architecture and Construction of Russia, but it was the following year that he was appointed head of the Russian Rescue Corps, the position that catapulted him as one of the most most popular in the country.
Disasters are made by ministers and trusted men of Putin
In the midst of the collapse of the USSR, accompanied by floods, forest fires and other disasters, Shoigu monopolized spaces in the media and in 1994 his work was rewarded with the creation of the Ministry for Emergency Situations, which he held until 2012, when after almost six months as governor of the Moscow region, he was appointed to the defense front.
Since then, the closeness of Putin and Shoigu has only strengthened, as the Kremlin itself has insisted on emphasizing by spreading images of their joint vacations, both in summer, where they can be seen fishing with their bare chests, and in winter, walking through a snowy forest.
No other member of the Russian government has been the subject, at least publicly, of being distinguished with such a level of familiarity with the head of the Kremlin.
Peppered by allegations of corruption
Shoigu has also not been spared from the corruption allegations made by the opposition against senior Russian officials.
Already in 2015, the banned Fund to Fight Corruption (FBK) of the currently imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalni published an investigation stating that Shoigu’s daughter, Ksenia, just turned 18, bought two plots of land in the most elite sector of the outskirts of Moscow for 9 million dollars.
The FBK pointed out that the fact that the purchase was made after Ksenia reached the age of majority allowed Shoigu not to include these lands in his patrimonial declaration, mandatory for public officials.
Shoigu declares himself orthodox, but his detractors assure that he believes in shamanism, who are well established in Tuva, and that he has influenced Putin’s beliefs.
The campaign in Ukraine takes its toll
The setbacks in the 16-month war in Ukraine, despite the Kremlin’s claims that “everything is going according to plan”, have sparked harsh criticism of his management and that of the chief of the General Staff, Valeri Gerasimov.
And it has been precisely the head of the Wagnerites, the leader of the aborted rebellion last weekend, who has led the singing voice against the Russian military leadership.
During the uprising, he said that he would not retire until he had Shoigu and Gerasimov in his power, whom he demanded to dismiss.
Against them, he has not spared all kinds of insults, he has accused them of not giving credit to the mercenaries for their achievements on the front, he has accused them of incompetence and has denounced the lack of ammunition and weapons supply for his men by the Defense .
Shoigu responded to the challenges of the head of the Wagner Group with an order that all “volunteer” units fighting in the neighboring country had to subordinate themselves to his command from July 1, something that he finally achieved with the Wagnerites after the agreement. reached between the Kremlin and Prigozhin that stopped the uprising.
Whether this will help him survive as head of the Ministry of Defense and as a friend of Putin is still up in the air.