Sergey Kuzhugetovich Shoygu
Quite a surprise, a shock. An interesting choice. An ethnic Tuvan, an engineer who spent his post-Soviet life heading MChS — the Ministry of Emergency Situations, who was Governor of Moscow Oblast for just six months.
It’s a hard to imagine Shoygu advancing change and reform in the military to the degree Serdyukov did.
Despite his successes, Anatoliy Eduardovich was done in by offending his estranged mentor, father-in-law, and close Putin confidant, Viktor Zubkov. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when police found the Defense Minister at Vasilyeva’s apartment, just below his own (how convenient), at 0600.
Ironically, Serdyukov wasn’t done in by the corruption of his young, largely female team of civilian administrators and former tax service officials. And perhaps he wasn’t done in by his own corruption. We’ll have to see what fate awaits him.
Serdyukov came close but didn’t match Sergey Ivanov. Serdyukov spent 2,091 days as defense minister to the latter’s 2,150.
Can’t help but feel Shoygu won’t come close to either number.
Russian Defense Policy 