MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a surprise new defense minister, nominating civilian Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister specializing in economics, for the post after two years of war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
Below are some facts about Andrei Removich Belousov:
* Belousov, 65, graduated with honors from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University in 1981. He defended his dissertation on “An imitative approach to modeling interrelated processes for the formation and use of working capital.”
* In 2000, Belousov was appointed non-personal adviser to the Russian prime minister and joined the Ministry of Economy as deputy minister six years later. From 2008 to 2012 he was director of the government's department of economics and finance, the same years Putin served as prime minister.
* In 2012 he was appointed Minister of Economy. From 2013 to 2020, Belousov served as an advisor to the Russian president. As of 2020 he served as first deputy prime minister. When Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin contracted COVID in 2020, Belousov briefly assumed prime ministerial duties while Mishustin improved.
* In 2017, Russian media outlet RBC said Belousov was one of the officials who convinced Putin that the digital economy and blockchain were crucial for the future.
* “I can say that what a country with sovereignty must definitely have is the possession of its own meanings. Who are we, where are we from, where are we going?… We have no choice for our country but to acquire or reproduce this identity,” Belousov told RBC in an interview in 2023.
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* According to RBC, in his youth he practiced sambo and karate and did not serve in the armed forces. He is believed to be close to Putin.
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