Putin moves his chess pieces

There's nothing like reelection to give a boost to the ego, and Vladimir Putin's ego was pretty big anyway. So, with his fifth reelection all sorted and his future set in concrete (or gold), he has been changing round his top chaps to bring a new look to his admnistration. Sergei Shoigu, his old mate, fishing partner and defence minister, has been ousted but then "promoted" to become the Secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council, not so powerful but still prestigious. He is replacing Nikolai Patrushev, a former boss of the FSB security service and a man who probably knows all of Putin's skeletons in the Kremlin cupboard. Putin will have to give him another important job to make sure he keeps all those secrets to himself. I'm sure there will be an announcement soon. Being in Putin's inner circle is all about power and money, so no one is going to lose out to make sure the Putin power base remains as solid as ever. Replacing the old-style veteran at the defence ministry with Andrei Belousov, an economist, is a smart move, seeing as how millions of roubles are being wasted in corruption and overspend and the war in Ukraine. But it's going to cause anxiety inside the defence ministry where they like the man in charge to be a military chap. Belousev's apppointment could lead to a lot of job losses, streamlining of arms departments, a shake-up of weapons production lines and a dfferent approach to the war in Ukraine. I suspect it's not good news for Kyiv or its western partners.