💥Ukraine destroyed the entire jet fuel storage facility at Russia’s Belbek airbase in occupied Crimea. Capacity was reportedly 450,000 liters. The adjacent building housing fuel trucks also destroyed, incapacitating any near-term operations from this base. https://t.co/8h8yWIe45G pic.twitter.com/WzhhxDSUO8
— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) May 18, 2024
Day: May 17, 2024
On 17 May, as part of his state visit to Azerbaijan, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko together with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev visited the country’s territories, being rebuilt after the conflict.
In the morning, Aleksandr Lukashenko flew to Fuzuli. He was met by Ilham Aliyev at the airport. The President of Azerbaijan briefed his Belarusian counterpart on the works carried out to restore and develop these territories and build new infrastructure facilities. Aleksandr Lukashenko got familiar with the new airport, and the heads of state accompanied by an impressive motorcade headed for the city.
Aleksandr Lukashenko and Ilham Aliyev toured the city, saw destroyed facilities and prospective areas for development. The Presidents traveled along the route in one car, with the Azerbaijani leader behind the wheel.
Aleksandr Lukashenko got familiar with the expositions depicting the pace of the reconstruction of the destroyed sites. After that, the two leaders headed for Shusha.
The heads of state visited the residential area of the city, examined housing conditions, memorial sites and museum and exhibition exposition on Heydar Aliyev’s activity. Aleksandr Lukashenko and Ilham Aliyev also inspected tractor equipment presented to the city by the President of Belarus.
“Use them. If you like them, we will add more,” the Belarusian head of state said.
There are many reminders of the city’s tragic past: some houses are unrestorable. Memorial sites and temples have been destroyed.
“Telling ruins,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “Restorable buildings must be fixed.”
In the city, the Presidents met the famous Soviet and Azerbaijani singer, and now the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia Polad Bülbüloğlu, which came as a big surprise for Aleksandr Lukashenko.
“Polad, is this you? You are here, not Moscow?” the President said.
“This is a surprise for you!” Ilham Aliyev said.
“A gorgeous place. This is why you still sing. Air here is amazing! I recently watched a TV show starring you!” Aleksandr Lukashenko said in admiration.
Shusha has restored the house of Polad Bulbul oglu’s father, Soviet and Azerbaijani opera singer, founder of the national musical theater Murtuz Mashadi Rza oglu Mammadov, nicknamed Bulbul (“nightingale” in Azerbaijani).
Now it houses a museum dedicated to the famous performer. Nearby there is the bust of Bulbul. It was erected back in the Soviet years. Later on it was gunned down and dismantled. Until 2021, the bust was kept in the courtyard of the Azerbaijan Museum of Art, and then it was returned to Shusha.
“Those who shoot at icons and monuments are barbarians,” the Belarusian leader said.
By Margaret Brennan, Andres Triay, Nicole Sganga, Olivia Gazis, Camilla Schick, Sam Vinograd
May 17, 2024 / 6:11 PM EDT / CBS News
The State Department on Friday issued a worldwide caution security alert, warning of “the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests.”
The threat warning is a result of intelligence citing threats by ISIS against Pride events in parts of Europe, three sources told CBS News.
The State Department bulletin cites “increased potential for foreign terrorist organization-inspired violence against LGBTQI+ persons and events.” The last such global threat warning was issued in October 2023.
Friday’s alert follows one from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security last week that warned of the “potential targeting of LGBTQIA+-related events and venues.”
“Foreign terrorist organizations or supporters may seek to exploit increased gatherings associated with the upcoming June 2024 Pride Month,” it said.
June is PRIDE month with events and celebrations in much of the Western world, including the U.S.
While the State Department bulletin is meant for overseas travel, there is concern about a domestic threat from ISIS, two sources told CBS News.
An unclassified intelligence bulletin obtained by CBS News and dated May 10 says, “Since January 2024, ISIS has successfully conducted external operations in Iran, Russia, and Turkey; called for attacks against the West; and has promised to exact revenge on its enemies, which could include the LGBTQIA+ community.”
In May, the Joint Counterterrorism Assessment Team — which includes inputs from FBI, DHS and the National Counterterrorism Center — also issued guidance on violent extremist attacks, plotting and messaging against the LGBTQIA+ community. That document flagged an incident from October 2023 in which a user of a well-known U.S. video game company who publicly swore allegiance to Hamas and ISIS posted videos calling for such attacks. The guidance urged greater engagement between the LGBTQIA+ community and public safety officials.
The last significant ISIS attack was in March in Moscow, Russia.
“We continue to work with our partners to evaluate the threat environment, provide updates to the American public, and protect our homeland. We urge the public to stay vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activity to their local law enforcement,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement Friday.
First published on May 17, 2024 / 6:11 PM EDT
© 2024 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
By Margaret Brennan, Andres Triay, Nicole Sganga, Olivia Gazis, Camilla Schick, Sam Vinograd
May 17, 2024 / 6:11 PM EDT / CBS News
The State Department on Friday issued a worldwide caution security alert, warning of “the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests.”
The threat warning is a result of intelligence citing threats by ISIS against Pride events in parts of Europe, three sources told CBS News.
The State Department bulletin cites “increased potential for foreign terrorist organization-inspired violence against LGBTQI+ persons and events.” The last such global threat warning was issued in October 2023.
Friday’s alert follows one from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security last week that warned of the “potential targeting of LGBTQIA+-related events and venues.”
“Foreign terrorist organizations or supporters may seek to exploit increased gatherings associated with the upcoming June 2024 Pride Month,” it said.
June is PRIDE month with events and celebrations in much of the Western world, including the U.S.
While the State Department bulletin is meant for overseas travel, there is concern about a domestic threat from ISIS, two sources told CBS News.
An unclassified intelligence bulletin obtained by CBS News and dated May 10 says, “Since January 2024, ISIS has successfully conducted external operations in Iran, Russia, and Turkey; called for attacks against the West; and has promised to exact revenge on its enemies, which could include the LGBTQIA+ community.”
In May, the Joint Counterterrorism Assessment Team — which includes inputs from FBI, DHS and the National Counterterrorism Center — also issued guidance on violent extremist attacks, plotting and messaging against the LGBTQIA+ community. That document flagged an incident from October 2023 in which a user of a well-known U.S. video game company who publicly swore allegiance to Hamas and ISIS posted videos calling for such attacks. The guidance urged greater engagement between the LGBTQIA+ community and public safety officials.
The last significant ISIS attack was in March in Moscow, Russia.
“We continue to work with our partners to evaluate the threat environment, provide updates to the American public, and protect our homeland. We urge the public to stay vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activity to their local law enforcement,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement Friday.
First published on May 17, 2024 / 6:11 PM EDT
© 2024 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This past week was an eventful one for Russia at war with the West. On May 7, Vladimir Putin was inaugurated for the fifth time as president of Russia in an elaborate ceremony that ended with Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church intoning “God willing, the end of the century will mean the end of your stay in power.” (In the year 2100, Putin would be 148.) On May 9, Russia celebrated Victory Day, where nuclear weapons were paraded, with Putin reminding the admiring crowd assembled in Red Square that, once again, Russia would defeat “Nazis,” this time in Ukraine, and prevail over the hostile West that seeks to dismember it.
After the festivities came the long-awaited cabinet reshuffle. Ever since Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny last June, speculation about how long Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu would stay in power has grown. Shoigu has been the minister of defense since 2012, and he presided over the initial full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which failed to achieve its objective of taking Kyiv in three days and deposing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Indeed, the Russian military’s poor performance for the first 18 months of the war fueled debate about how long Shoigu would stay in power. Prigozhin’s increasing attacks on both Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov for incompetence and corruption cemented his popularity among rank-and-file soldiers and military bloggers. He led a failed coup aimed at ousting them. But it was he, and not Shoigu, who was eliminated.
Nevertheless, the recent arrest of Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, a close confidant of Shoigu, also known to be notoriously corrupt, signaled that Shoigu’s position as defense minister could be in jeopardy. Shoigu’s dismissal is the most consequential of the recent cabinet reshuffles. He will become the secretary of the Russian Security Council, replacing Nikolai Patrushev, who has served in this position since 2008. Patrushev has been named an aide to Putin responsible for overseeing shipbuilding. His son, Dmitry Patrushev, has been promoted to deputy prime minister for agriculture. It is important to remember that, in the Putin system, official titles are much less important than one’s relationship with Putin. Nikolai will no doubt retain his close ties to Putin. And Shoigu is likely to be a less influential head of the Security Council than Patrushev was.
The new minister of defense, Andrei Belousov, is, at first glance, a surprising choice. An economist by training, he has held several previous positions as an economic official, including briefly as acting prime minister. He is known to be in favor of greater state control of the economy. His appointment confirms that Russia is now on a war economy footing, corruption within the military remains rife, and there have been rising conflicts between the Ministry of Defense and the military-industrial complex. Belousov will, in effect, act as the quartermaster. He will be responsible for strengthening the war economy as well as dealing with corruption, reducing bottlenecks in the supply chains, and encouraging innovation in the military sector. He will also have to ensure that the military receives the supplies it needs and that money allocated for weapons and training will not continue to disappear into the pockets of corrupt officials. He will oversee the integration of the war economy with the rest of the economy to ensure the flow of weaponry and materiel. He will not make the key military decisions. These will continue to be made by Putin, Gerasimov, and others in the military. He accompanied Putin to Beijing this week to discuss military issues with his Chinese counterpart.
Putin’s main concern as the war with Ukraine continues is for military spending to be under control. And he realized that he needed a competent economic decisionmaker to accomplish that. Belousov’s appointment is in some ways reminiscent of Anatoly Serdyukov’s appointment as defense minister from 2007 to 2012. A former furniture manufacturer and tax official, Serdyukov’s main task was dealing with corruption and inefficiency in the ministry and reforming the armed forces after their less-than-stellar performance in the Georgia war of 2008.
Apart from these personnel changes, much remains the same. Mikhail Mishustin has been reappointed as prime minister. A technocrat who has maintained a low profile during the war with Ukraine, Mishustin’s primary responsibility will remain dealing with the economy and ensuring its continued stability and growth. The power ministries are also staying in the same hands. Sergey Lavrov, who has been foreign minister since 2004, remains in office, despite periodic rumors of his imminent retirement. The heads of the intelligence services—Sergei Naryshkin of the Foreign Intelligence Service and Alexander Bortnikov of the Federal Security Service—retain their positions (despite their intelligence failures prior to the invasion of Ukraine), as does the head of Putin’s Praetorian guard, Viktor Zolotov.
These personnel moves represent a reshuffling of a deck of cards that Putin has meticulously played over his 25 years in the Kremlin. Their message is that Putin intends to win the war with Ukraine with the help of a more efficient military and a sound economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Wednesday agreed to hold two campaign debates — the first on June 27 hosted by CNN and the second on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC — setting the stage for their first presidential face-off to play out in just over a month.
The quick agreement on the timetable followed the Democrat’s announcement that he would not participate in fall presidential debates sponsored by the nonpartisan commission that has organized them for more than three decades. Biden’s campaign instead proposed that media outlets directly organize the debates between the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees.
The debate is so unusually early on the political calendar that neither Biden nor Trump will have formally accepted his party’s nomination.
Hours later, Biden said he had accepted an invitation from CNN, adding, “Over to you, Donald.” Trump, who had insisted he would debate Biden anytime and anyplace, said on Truth Social he’d be there, too, adding, “Let’s get ready to Rumble!!!” Soon after that, they agreed to the second debate on ABC.
“Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation,” Biden wrote on X, working in a jab about the perks of incumbency. “I’ll bring my plane, too. I plan on keeping it for another four years.”
The swiftness with which the matchups came together reflects how each of the two unpopular candidates thinks he can get the better of his opponent in a head-to-head showdown. Trump and his team are convinced the debates will exacerbate voters’ concerns about Biden’s age and competence, while Biden’s team believes Trump’s often-incendiary rhetoric will remind voters of why they voted him out of the White House four years ago.
The presidential debates, always a critical moment on the political calendar, could be particularly important in a year when voters are underwhelmed with their choices and have expressed concerns about the candidates’ advanced ages — Biden is 81 and Trump 77.
Sprightly on social media, the rivals traded barbs — each claiming victory the last time they faced off in 2020.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, since then he hasn’t shown up for a debate,” Biden said in a post on X. “Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal.”
Trump, for his part, said Biden was the “WORST debater I have ever faced – He can’t put two sentences together!”
The June debate is likely to cap a busy and unsettled stretch, following the likely conclusion of Trump’s criminal hush money trial in New York, foreign trips by Biden to France and Italy, the end of the Supreme Court’s term, and the expected start of two criminal trials for the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
CNN said that its debate would be held at 9 p.m. ET in its Atlanta studios with no audience present in a break from recent precedent. Moderators will be anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, CNN said. ABC did not offer details on where its event would be held, but the network said it would be moderated by anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis. Disagreements about moderators and rules were some of the questions that prompted the formation of the Commission on Presidential Debates in 1987.
The two campaigns and television networks had held weeks of informal talks on ways to circumvent the commission’s grip on presidential debates following years of complaints and perceived slights, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke about internal discussions on condition of anonymity.
Biden’s campaign had proposed excluding third-party candidates, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from the debates outright. Under the debate commission’s rules, Kennedy or other third-party candidates could qualify if they secured ballot access sufficient to claim 270 Electoral Votes and polled at 15% or higher in a selection of national surveys.
Both CNN and ABC announced the same qualification threshold, saying candidates will need to reach at least 15% in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters that meet their standards.
In response, Kennedy accused Biden and Trump of “trying to exclude me from their debate because they are afraid I would win.” He said, “Keeping viable candidates off the debate stage undermines democracy.”
The debates will be the first televised general election matchups to be hosted by individual networks. The 1960 debates, which helped show the power of the medium to influence public opinion, were hosted jointly by the leading networks of the day. Before the commission was formed in 1987, the presidential debates of 1976, 1980 and 1984 were organized by the League of Women Voters.
Plans for a vice presidential debate have yet to be announced.
Trump has been pushing for more and earlier debates, arguing voters should be able to see the two men face off well before early voting begins in September. He has even proposed a debate outside the Manhattan courthouse where he is currently on trial. He also has been taunting Biden with an empty lectern at some of his rallies.
In a memorandum to Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon on Wednesday, Trump senior campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles challenged Biden to agree to at least two additional debates, suggesting one be held each month, with events in June, July, August and September, in addition to a vice presidential debate.
“Additional dates will allow voters to have maximum exposure to the records and future visions of each candidate,” they wrote.
Trump later posted on Truth Social that he had agreed to a third debate, this one hosted by Fox.
“Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that I hereby accept debating Crooked Joe Biden on FoxNews. The date will be Wednesday, October 2nd. The Hosts will be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. Thank you, DJT!” he wrote.
O’Malley Dillon responded with a statement accusing Trump of having “a long history of playing games with debates: complaining about the rules, breaking those rules, pulling out at the last minute, or not showing up at all.”
“No more games. No more chaos, no more debate about debates. We’ll see Donald Trump on June 27th in Atlanta – if he shows up,” she wrote.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Wednesday morning, Trump had raised his own doubts about whether Biden would show, and offered his own suggestions. He said the debates “should go two hours” with both men standing, and he also pushed for larger venues.
“It’s just more exciting,” he said.
Biden’s campaign has long held a grudge against the nonpartisan commission, accusing it of failing to evenly apply its rules during the 2020 Biden-Trump matchups — most notably when it didn’t enforce its COVID-19 testing rules on Trump and his entourage.
AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports President Biden and Donald Trump appear to agree on holding a pair of debates.
O’Malley Dillon on Wednesday sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates to say that Biden’s campaign objected to its proposed debate dates in the fall, which would come after some Americans begin to vote, repeating a complaint also voiced by the Trump campaign. She also voiced frustrations over past rule violations and the commission’s insistence on holding the debates before a live audience.
“The debates should be conducted for the benefit of the American voters, watching on television and at home — not as entertainment for an in-person audience with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors,” she wrote.
There also was little love lost for the commission from Trump, who objected to technical issues at his first debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 and was upset when a 2020 debate with Biden was canceled after the Republican came down with COVID-19. The Republican National Committee had already promised not to work with the commission on the 2024 contests.
The Trump campaign issued a statement on May 1 that said of the debate schedule offered by the commission: “This is unacceptable.”
The commission said in a Wednesday statement, “The American public deserves substantive debates from the leading candidates for president and vice president.” It said its mission is “to ensure that such debates reliably take place and reach the widest television, radio and streaming audience.”
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region aims to create a buffer zone but has no plans to capture the city.
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Putin says Russia wants buffer zone in Ukraine’s Kharkiv but has no plans to capture the city
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region aims to create a buffer zone but has no plans to capture the city.
Putin addresses Russia-China Expo event, touts success of joint industrial projects
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said his country is ready to provide support to Chinese businesses setting up production in Russia. “We are ready to provide investors from China with economic benefits, assistance and support, as well as access to the unique Russian technological base of highly qualified personnel,” Putin said during an address at the opening of the Russia-China expo event in the Chinese city of Harbin.
Russian President Putin lays flowers at WWII memorial in Harbin during state visit to China
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin laid flowers on Friday at a WWII memorial in Harbin during his state visit to China.
Photos
By HUIZHONG WU and EMILY WANG FUJIYAMA
Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]
BEIJING (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded a two-day visit to China on Friday, emphasizing the countries’ burgeoning strategic ties as well as his own personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as they sought to present an alternative to U.S. global influence.
Putin praised the growth in bilateral trade while touring a China-Russia Expo in the northeastern city of Harbin. He met students at the Harbin Institute of Technology, known for its defense research and its work with the People’s Liberation Army.
Harbin, capital of China’s Heilongjiang province, was once home to many Russian expatriates and retains some of that history in its architecture, such as the central St. Sophia Cathedral, a former Russian Orthodox church.
Underscoring the personal nature of the relationship, Putin said the Harbin institute and his alma mater, St. Petersburg State University, will open a joint school for 1,500 students. “I’m sure that it will become a flagship of the Russian-Chinese cooperation in science and education,” he said
Speaking to reporters, Putin praised his talks with Xi as “substantive,” saying that he spent “almost a whole day, from morning till evening” with the Chinese leader and other officials in Beijing the previous day. As he departed Beijing, the two leaders embraced.
The partnership between China and Russia “is not directed against anyone,” Putin said in a veiled reference to the West. “It is aimed at one thing: creating better conditions for the development of our countries and improving the well-being of the people of China and the Russian Federation.”
But he still had a back-handed rebuke for the U.S., and others who oppose the Moscow-Beijing relationship, saying an “emerging multipolar world … is now taking shape before our eyes.”
“And it is important that those who are trying to maintain their monopoly on decision-making in the world on all issues … do everything in their power to ensure that this process goes naturally,” he said.
Both Russia and China have frequently spoken of the “emerging multipolar world” in response to what they view as U.S. hegemony.
Joseph Torigian, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute, said the message being sent by China and Russia was clear: “At this moment, they’re reminding the West that they can be defiant when they want to.”
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu addressed Putin’s visit in an interview with The Associated Press, saying Western powers should continue to support Ukraine as part of sending a message that democracies will defend one another.
“If Ukraine is defeated at the end, I think China is going to get inspired, and they might take even more ambitious steps in expanding their power in the Indo-Pacific, and it will be disastrous for the international community,” Wu said.
Putin this month began his fifth term in power and Xi began his third last year. The Russian leader’s trip “is an example of the two big authoritarian countries supporting each other, working together with each other, supporting each other’s expansionism,” Wu added.
Russia has become isolated globally following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. China has a tense relationship with the U.S., which has labeled it a competitor, and faces pressure for continuing to supply key components to Russia needed for weapons production.
Putin began the day by laying flowers at a Harbin monument to fallen Soviet soldiers who had fought for China against the Japanese during the second Sino-Japanese war, when Japan occupied parts of China.
At the trade exhibition in Harbin, Putin emphasized the importance of Russia-China cooperation in jointly developing new technologies.
“Relying on traditions of friendship and cooperation, we can look into the future with confidence,” he said. “The Russian-Chinese partnership helps our countries’ economic growth, ensures energy security, helps develop production and create new jobs.”
A joint statement on Thursday described their world view and expounded on criticism of U.S. military alliances in Asia and the Pacific. The meeting was yet another affirmation of the friendly “no-limits” relationship China and Russia signed in 2022, just before Moscow invaded Ukraine.
Talks of ending the fighting featured frequently in Thursday’s remarks, although Russia has just opened a new front by launching attacks in Ukraine’s northeastern border area. The war is at a critical point for Ukraine, which had faced delays in getting weapons from the U.S.
China offered a broad plan for peace last year that was rejected by both Ukraine and the West for failing to call for Russia to leave occupied parts of Ukraine.
Since the invasion and subsequent Western sanctions on Moscow, Russia has increasingly depended on China for technology and some consumer imports while exporting cheap energy. Trade between the two countries increased to $240 billion last year.
European leaders have pressed China to influence Russia to end its invasion, to little avail. Experts say the Moscow-Beijing relationship offers strategic benefits, particularly when both have tensions with Europe and the U.S.
“Even if China compromises on a range of issues, including cutting back support on Russia, it’s unlikely that the U.S. or the West will drastically change their attitude to China as a competitor,” said Hoo Tiang Boon, who researches Chinese foreign policy at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. “They see very little incentive for compromise.”
Xi and Putin have a longstanding agreement to visit each other’s countries once a year, and Xi was welcomed at the Kremlin last year.
___
Wu reported from Bangkok. AP writers Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Simina Mistreanu and Christopher Bodeen in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed.
Amid a flurry of changes in the Russian government this week as Vladimir Putin carries out his post-inaugural reshuffle, something strange and potentially dangerous happened in Chechnya: Ramzan Kadyrov’s longtime righthand man, Magomed Daudov, suddenly up and quit.
“After a meeting with the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, I decided to resign as chairman of the parliament of the Chechen Republic,” Daudov was quoted as announcing on local television.
He gave no further explanation for the move. Kadyrov, bizarrely, claimed that after nearly 10 years on the job, Daudov had simply decided it was time to “search for himself in other spheres.”
Experts say there’s something more alarming going on, however—and that Daudov, accused of torturing and hunting down dissidents in the Chechen Republic, is about to get one hell of a promotion.
It’s likely, said Ruslan Kutaev, chair of the Assembly of the Peoples of the Caucasus, “that Daudov was relieved of his post as speaker of the Chechen parliament in order to be appointed to a federal position.”
“In the coming days it will become clear,” Kutaev told the Caucasian Knot, adding that such an appointment would mean “Kadyrov and his people are sought after on the federal level.”
Kadyrov and his allies are said to be angling for Daudov to get a gig as a deputy defense minister, according to the well-connected VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, citing an unnamed source.
If he does see his star rise, according to political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin, it would mean the Kremlin “wants a closer look at him.” They want “to see what he is capable of, his potential. And then they will be able to think about how to use him further, in what regions and in what capacity,” Oreshkin told the Caucasian Knot.
For those familiar with his track record, such an appointment would be alarming.
Daudov, who received the Hero of Russia award in 2007, has long been accused of acting as Kadyrov’s enforcer to quash dissent and carrying out some of the worst human rights abuses in the Chechen Republic.
Known as “Lord” for his nickname while fighting during both Chechen wars—at first on the side of the rebels, and later the government—he was accused of ordering and overseeing the torture of young men during a so-called anti-gay purge in 2017 that is believed to have claimed several people’s lives and forced many others to flee.
Victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch recalled hearing their abusers cite orders handed down by Daudov, and several others said they’d spotted him at detention sites while torture was being carried out.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s post-inauguration cabinet reshuffle and military purge has raised speculation that he’s looking to consolidate power as he prepares for a much longer war in Ukraine.
Putin named economist Andrei Belousov as Moscow’s defense chief, replacing long-serving Sergei Shoigu. Shoigu, in turn, was made secretary of Russia’s security council, replacing ousted security chief Nikolai Patrushev — a key player in Putin’s security apparatus who will now serve as the Russian president’s aide.
Also included in the reshuffle was Lt. Gen. Yuri Kuznetsov, a high-ranking military official responsible for personnel matters who was arrested “on suspicion of criminal activity,” according to Russia state media.
Taken together, the shakeup promotes economic over military minds to sustain Putin’s war machine across several years, as well as stamping out any threat of a possible usurper, experts told The Hill.
“We will see more arrests, really as a signal more than anything else, saying ‘Look, doesn’t matter what the old rules were new, the new rules are different,’” said Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert and head of Mayak Intelligence consultancy firm in London.
Galeotti also said the changes indicate that Putin is “digging in for the long term” on Ukraine, already more than two years into fighting.
“Essentially, this is pointing to a strategy of attrition and a willingness to take risks, take losses, while waiting for Ukraine to no longer have the capacity to fight and the West no longer the will to keep supporting it,” he said.
Putin earlier this week was sworn in as president for a fifth term, ensuring he will be Russia’s leader until at least 2030.
Among his first orders of business was replacing Shoigu, the defense minister since 2012, a shake-up of the Kremlin’s national security team for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Replacing him is Belousov, a deputy prime minister and economic advisor to Putin who has never served in the military. The changeover has been portrayed as a move to streamline the country’s defense spending.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow’s security budget had swelled to more than 6.5 percent of GDP and officials were looking to bring it back down under Belousov.
“This demands special attention,” Peskov said. “It’s very important to put the security economy in line with the economy of the country, so that it meets the dynamics of the current moment.”
He added that Putin also decided a civilian should run defense matters because “on the battlefield, he who is more open to innovation . . . wins.”
Shoigu’s reassignment is notable given his close relationship with Putin, with the two in the past going on fishing and hunting trips.
Likewise, outgoing security chief Patrushev has long been seen as a close confidant of the Russian president, and his move is widely viewed as a demotion. Patrushev, a former K.G.B. colleague of Putin, was a key player in the assassination of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin last year, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman told NPR this week that he interpreted the “sidelining” of Patrushev as being more about consolidating power in the Kremlin, rather than directly related to Ukraine war efforts.
“I see the fact that the second most powerful person in the country, Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the National Security Council, was removed and replaced with another loyalist, both weakening, let’s say, opposing factions,” he said.
“I think this is a way to insulate Putin more concretely in his second term, give him a freer hand,” added Vindman, who now heads the Institute for Informed American Leadership think tank.
Shoigu, along with the head of the Russian military Valery Gerasimov, have drawn the ire from Russian officials over Moscow’s failures on the battlefield in Ukraine, even as it’s slowly gained ground in recent months.
“Shoigu was not exactly performing to the standard that was needed. He’d been a good civilian peacetime minister but as a catastrophically bad wartime one. And so I think it was time for him to be moved on,” Galeotti told The Hill.
There has also been a public charge to stamp out corruption within Russia’s defense apparatus, with Russia’s security services last month arresting one of Shoigu’s deputy defense ministers, Timur Ivanov, on corruption charges.
But that was also viewed by the West as a ploy to weaken Shoigu.
Asked Monday about Russia’s personnel changes, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh declined to comment beyond a dig at their current war effort.
“Given where the war has started that Russia launched, you know, over two years ago, they’ve certainly not had successes on the battlefield and had some pretty big defeats. So I’ll let the Russians speak to their own personnel changes,” she said.
Others see the timing of the changeovers — ahead of Putin’s arrival in Beijing this week for the first state visit of his new term — as an aim to further integrate Russia’s economy more deeply with China for the sake of long-term military capabilities.
“Putin has brought this delegation of both cabinet members and the heads of Russian banks and energy companies — and shaken up his cabinet just before his visit to the economic patron of his war in Ukraine, the Chinese Communist Party,” Jonathan Ward, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., told The Hill.
“This suggests that Putin is trying to bring China deeper into his war effort and trying to align the Russian and Chinese economies in such a way that would enable him — with China’s help — to win the war.”
War said China’s economic support for Russia has already “laid the foundations for their war in Europe,” and that making an economist the defense minister shows Putin’s determination to the “further transformation of Russia into a wartime economy.”
Cumulatively, the cabinet shifts mark a turning point in Russia’s more than two-year war in Ukraine, essentially militarizing the whole structure of government and turning it into a warfighting institution.
Unlike Russia’s war effort, its economy has defied expectations over the past two years. Even under the cloud of major economic sanctions imposed by the West, as well as being cut off from most global markets, the Kremlin in 2023 outpaced both the United States and Europe in terms of growth. That gain seems to have been largely driven by increased military spending, with significant ramp ups of Russia’s defense industry, according to economists.
Belouso’s appointment appears to be an acknowledgment of that new normal, shoring up Moscow for a long-haul conflict with Ukraine as Russian forces mount a new offensive in the country’s northeast. The battle plan looks to be a slow push forward to retake smaller towns, rather than major assaults on big cities as Moscow attempted unsuccessfully at the start of the war.
“Russians learn lessons,” Galeotti said of the shift. “Sometimes their responses are not the same as ours, ones we would expect or they’re sluggish or wasteful, but the Russians do learn and I think this is what we’re seeing. It’s actually a lot of the lessons of the past couple of years, particularly in terms of how you manage your system for a long-term war of attrition beginning to be applied.”
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