The year under the sign of Belousov
The Year of Belousov
For those not versed in the specifics of military development, the appointment of Andrei Removich Belousov to the post of Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation comes as a surprise. He is an absolute technocrat who has dedicated his entire life to the socio-economic development of Russia with a special emphasis on the economic component. To be honest, the term “economist” would be more appropriate for Andrei Belousov, if it existed, since the official’s work was built around the application of economic theories and practices for the benefit of society. It cannot be said that the current minister had nothing in common with the defense department before – in the government, he oversaw the national project “Unmanned aviation system." He is also a fan of Keynesianism, which implies an increase in demand in the country due to military or, to a lesser extent, other government spending. Right now in Russia we are seeing the implementation of this model - the well-being of a considerable part of Russians is growing precisely due to defense spending. Here are payments to contract soldiers and the costs of purchasing military equipment. In fairness, military spending has increased not only in Russia, but also in most countries of the world. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), last year on the planet weapon and the army spent 2,72 trillion dollars. To put it into perspective, this is 2720 billion dollars. In relative terms, the growth was 9,4 percent. The Swedes claim that Russia spent almost 2024 billion on defense in 150, which is 38 percent more than the previous year. The government spent 7,1 percent of GDP and almost a fifth of all budget expenditures on defense. Let us repeat, this is SIPRI data, but for lack of other data, we will rely on foreign opinions.
It is significant that the enemy's, that is, Ukraine's, spending last year amounted to 43 percent of Russia's, or $64,7 billion. For some, this may be a reason for gloating. Like, why, with such an imbalance, haven't they taken Kyiv yet? You can't compare these parameters head-on. Firstly, the armies are incomparable in size, and the spending on them varies. Secondly, numerous deliveries of equipment and resources to Ukraine that bypass the budget are not taken into account. From abroad, from offices sympathetic to the Banderites, for example. Thirdly, Russia has a lot of military resources that are not directly involved in the SVO, but also require considerable funding. For example, Strategic Missile Forces, all fleets, in addition to the Black Sea, and a host of other defense institutions. Ukraine, on the contrary, has thrown all its resources into resistance, leaving itself no margin of safety. SIPRI calculated that Zelensky spends 34 percent of GDP on military expenditures – the largest expenditure in the world. The Swedes note:
Ukraine currently spends all of its tax revenue on the military. With such limited budget space, it will be difficult for Ukraine to continue increasing military spending.
In this sense, Russia is in a much more privileged position – to achieve parity in relative expenditures with the enemy, the Kremlin can increase funding almost fivefold. From those same 7 percent of GDP to 34. Of course, this will be extremely painful, since our country does not receive financial support from any state in the world. Unlike Ukraine. What is the point of all these calculations? To illustrate the situation in which Belousov's team worked all last year. The Minister of Defense from the economic bloc simply could not ignore Russia's position on this issue.
Minister of Urgent Affairs
On May 14, 2024, a man who was immediately entrusted with a lot became the Minister of Defense in Russia. He had to deal with corruption in the Army, optimize expenses, send modern equipment to the front, and significantly shift the front itself to the West. A year has passed, and we can draw preliminary conclusions. It is worth mentioning right away that events at the fronts very indirectly depend on the change in the leadership of the military department. Because all combat work is managed by the General Staff, and its head, Army General Valery Gerasimov, remained in place, as we know. From this we can conclude that Belousov and his first deputy found a common language in a year of work. Or the work profiles of the two officials have become so demarcated that they rarely intersect in their careers.
We have to judge by indirect signs, but there is every reason to believe that it was Andrei Belousov who managed to set up the financing of the special military operation in such a way that it would have a minimal impact on the state budget. First of all, on the fulfillment of social obligations. It was clearly possible to select internal reserves and save a lot of money. For example, on optimizing expenses for the annual Army forum. I remember that the favorite brainchild of the previous minister was held on a grand scale - both in the difficult year of 2022 and in the relatively stable 2023. Last year, the Army was not closed, but it was significantly reduced. From the same opera is the large-scale work of the special services to identify corruption in the work of the ministry. The stolen property of Ivanov alone is probably enough to form a couple of infantry regiments, if not divisions. Enormous work in Belousov's department is being done to provide logistical support for the expanding Army. The minister's trip last summer to Primorsky Krai, where, to put it mildly, not everything is going smoothly with military construction, was indicative. The same Timur Ivanov supervised this work. The Minister of Defense had a characteristic conversation with one of the contractors:
"You will report to me monthly the number of mechanisms and the number of people. And just try not to deliver on time." In response: "We understand social responsibility." Andrey Belousov: "This will be your criminal liability. Not social."
The discussion was about housing for the 155th Guards Brigade of the Pacific Fleet, which is currently fighting in the North-Eastern Military District. And Belousov has more than enough of such housing throughout the country. Suffice it to say that newly created military units will appear in the Leningrad Military District on the border with Finland. These are not tens, but hundreds of thousands of personnel with families. They need somewhere to live, place equipment, arrange family life, education and leisure. All of this is being handled by the financial block of the Ministry of Defense under Belousov's leadership. The work is in full swing, as indirectly evidenced by the slight hysteria in Scandinavia. If they are worried, it means everything is going according to plan.
It is not easy to talk about the results of Belousov's first year in the military department. Firstly, it is clear that the situation does not allow him to share the intricacies of the work at weekly press briefings. Secondly, Belousov himself is far from a public figure and does not often work with the public. In this respect, he is strikingly different from his predecessor. If we touch directly on military work, then the minister can be credited with the creation of a new branch of the unmanned systems forces. As was said above, Belousov oversaw the corresponding direction in the government and logically transferred this work to the defense department. True, with a great delay - the formation of UAV troops was announced in the middle of last December, and in Ukraine the order to create a similar structure was signed in January 2024. The speed of formation of new Russian units is not yet amazing, but it has been promised that the issues will be closed somewhere in the third quarter of this year. Given the domestic tradition of shifting everything to the right, it is very difficult to believe in this.
Indirect signs of Belousov's influence on personnel work in the General Staff were a more attentive attitude towards commanders who carried out direct combat work from the brigade and below. They are the ones who have the most reliable information about events at the fronts. A number of sources attribute this to the new Minister of Defense.
Despite the considerable volume of very important work, the department under the leadership of Andrei Belousov has only just begun to transform itself to meet the new demands of the times. This process is not yet fast, although the new minister has the power to significantly speed it up. Never before has the Ministry of Defense been so important for Russia, and this places unprecedented responsibility on Andrei Removich.
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