Russian strongman Vladimir Putin (top, right) sacked his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu (top, left), on Sunday. Shoigu had just last year been the subject of an attempted Russian coup by quickly slain warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin (bottom, right).
General Sergei Shoigu was reviewing troops in Red Square, Moscow, alongside his long-time ally Putin last week. The announcement of his removal was made on Sunday night and he is being shuffled to the Russian Security Council, where he will join former Russian President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, also a Putin ally who apparently outlived his own usefulness.
The impression this soft-landing new job is just for the sake of appearances remains, however, given that the removal of Shoigu comes just weeks after one of his closest associates, Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov, was arrested and then jailed on bribery charges. As noted, observers interpreted the arrest as a move against Shoigu himself, who was the target of the Prigozhin coup last year on claims of corruption and military failure.
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