The longest-serving minister in the Russian government, Shoigu, has had an almost constant presence on television for the past three decades. His absence during the war initially sparked rumors of ill health, which the Kremlin denied. Moscow says the defense minister is just busy. Shoigu “has a lot, there is a special military operation and it is not really the time for media activity,” Dmitry Peshkov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Thursday. The mystery surrounding the defense minister, one of Russia’s most popular politicians and a longtime close ally of Putin, came as the army, which was renewed during his tenure, struggled in Ukraine as the invasion of the country stopped. Analysts have been impressed by the extent to which Russia’s operations have deviated from its usual battlefield strategy. It does not appear to have set up a unified command structure under a single officer, which makes it difficult to coordinate everything from air support to logistics. “This war does not fit the way the Russian military trains, prepares and is equipped to fight,” said Mark Galeotti, an honorary professor at University College London who studies the country’s armed forces. “Clearly the initial operation was based on Putin’s strange perception of Ukraine that it is not a real country, not a real people, and therefore the whole edifice will collapse.” Military failures and Shoigu’s apparent isolation have led some analysts to suggest that Putin may have planned the war with other former KGB officers rather than with professional soldiers. In anticipation of the invasion, a senior retired general, Leonid Ivashov, warned in an open letter that an attack would be “pointless and extremely dangerous” and would threaten Russia’s very existence. “The Kremlin did not listen to the army – it did [secret service officers] who said we can do this special business fast. “We need the army to launch rockets here and there, and the tanks to go to Kyiv, and that is it,” said Pavel Luzin, a military analyst based in Moscow. This has added to speculation that Shoigu, historically close to Putin, has been isolated. Born in the remote Siberian province of Tuva, the 66-year-old once took frequent vacations with Putin in the Siberian forest, where the Kremlin posted photos of a shirtless president riding, swimming in a mountain river and drinking tea in his defense. minister in matching clothes. Shoigu, left, with Vladimir Putin on holiday in Siberia in March last year © Alexey DruzHinin / SPUTNIK / AFP / Getty Images Shoigu was one of the strongest proponents of Putin’s marriage to Orthodox Christianity, worshiping Soviet victory in World War II. In 2020, he opened a cathedral for the Russian Armed Forces in khaki camouflage complete with mosaics and reliefs of key historical battles, floors of molten Nazi weapons and tanks, and a museum exhibiting war “relics” as he is said to have belonged. in the past to Hitler. A mosaic later removed after an outcry depicted Putin and Shoigu overseeing the annexation of Crimea. Shoigu was one of four officials – and the only one without a KGB record – who planned the annexation with Putin in 2014. But as the plot for this latest invasion began, an increasingly isolated Putin seemed to have literally moved away from Shoigu, forcing him to sit 20 feet away at the end of an apparently large table in the Kremlin. “He is a good soldier who does what he is told – he serves Putin and his country reliably,” said Tatiana Stanovagya, founder of the political consulting firm R. Politik in Soigo. “But Putin does not believe much in his professional skills – he is not that close.” Shoigu, second from left, sits away from Putin at a meeting last month © Alexey Nikolsky / SPUTNIK / AFP / Getty Images Shoigu became involved in politics when he took over the Soviet Union’s emergency services in 1991. His television appearances at disaster sites created an image of aptitude and led him to report as a possible successor to then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Instead, he merged a party he led with two others to form United Russia, the Kremlin’s main political tool. Although he never served in the military, his popularity and image for all the action made him Putin’s choice to take over the defense ministry in 2012. Shoigu became the face of Russia’s efforts to upgrade its military in the aftermath. Georgia in 2008. reformed the army’s command and control systems, opening a three-story high-tech war room where Shoigu and Putin oversaw the development of Russian weapons to support Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. The ground war in Ukraine, however, has revealed the limitations of Russia’s modernized military. As many as 15,000 soldiers have been killed in battle and 20 to 60 percent of their precision-guided missiles have failed, Western officials say. Ukraine claims to have killed 15 senior Russian commanders, including seven generals, accused of Moscow’s failure to set up an effective corps of officers.

“The Kremlin is afraid of its own officers, so they are trying to direct the war from the command center via Skype,” Luzin said. “The generals can see what is happening, but they have to carry out the orders they get from there and lie in their command that everything is not so bad. “So they take unfulfilled orders, run to the front, direct each tank with their hands and are killed.” The Financial Times is unable to independently verify the claims of Ukraine or Russia for losses. Russia’s losses seem to spark a class rift. Members of the 37th Motorized Rifle Brigade were so angry with their commander that they deliberately fell on him, according to a Western official. However, it seems unlikely that Shoigu will be a supporter of the military or repel Putin, analysts say. “It will be very difficult for people in the environment to speak out against something that Putin wants and clearly feels very passionate about,” Galeotti said. “He [ Shoigu] He did not stand up and said to Putin, “Look, if you want to do this, this is not the way to do it. We need more time to prepare. “We need a different kind of strategy.”