Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister on Sunday in a Cabinet shakeup as he begins his fifth term.

In accordance with Russian law, the entire Russian Cabinet resigned Tuesday following Putin’s spectacular inauguration in the Kremlin. Most members were widely anticipated to preserve their posts, although Shoigu’s status remained uncertain.

The Kremlin reported that Putin signed a decree on Sunday naming Shoigu as secretary of Russia’s Security Council. The appointment was revealed shortly after Putin requested that Andrei Belousov replace Shoigu as the country’s defense minister.

Shoigu’s new job was announced after 13 people were killed and 20 more injured in Russia’s border city of Belgorod when a 10-story apartment building partially collapsed due to what Russian officials claimed was Ukrainian shelling. Ukraine has not commented on the incident.

Putin Replaces Shoigu As Russia’s Defense Minister As He Starts His 5th Term

Russia’s upper chamber of parliament must accept Belousov’s candidacy, the Federation Council. On Sunday, it was claimed that Putin had also submitted ideas for additional Cabinet seats, but Shoigu is the only minister on the list who is being changed. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, whom Putin reappointed on Friday, offered several new federal ministry candidates on Saturday.

Shoigu’s deputy, Timur Ivanov, was detained last month on suspicions of bribery and ordered to be held in custody pending an official inquiry. Despite Shoigu’s close personal ties with Putin, the arrest of Ivanov was widely regarded as an attack on him and a likely precursor to his dismissal.

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin chose a civilian as defense minister because the ministry should be “open to innovation and cutting-edge ideas.” He also stated that the increased defense budget “must fit into the country’s larger economy” and that Belousov, who previously served as first deputy prime minister, is the best candidate for the position.

Belousov, 65, held senior roles in the prime minister’s office’s finance and economic departments and the Ministry of Economic Development. In 2013, he was appointed Putin’s adviser, and seven years later, in January 2020, he was named first deputy prime minister.

Peskov promised that the change would not affect “the military aspect,” which “has always been the prerogative of the Chief of General Staff,” and that Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who now holds this position, will continue to operate.

Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote in an online commentary that Shoigu’s new appointment to Russia’s Security Council demonstrated that the Russian leader saw the institution as “a reservoir” for his “‘former’ key figures — people he can’t let go of, but doesn’t have a place for.”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has also been named to the Security Council. Medvedev has served as the body’s deputy chairman since 2020.

Putin Replaces Shoigu As Russia’s Defense Minister As He Starts His 5th Term

Shoigu was chosen to the Security Council instead of Putin’s longtime supporter, Nikolai Patrushev. Peskov announced on Sunday that Patrushev is taking on a new job and promised to divulge more details in the coming days.

Shoigu is largely seen as a crucial role in Putin’s decision to deploy Russian soldiers into Ukraine. Russia expected the operation to easily crush Ukraine’s much smaller and less-equipped army and for Ukrainians to warmly welcome Russian troops.

Instead, the conflict inspired Ukraine to launch a fierce resistance, giving humiliating blows to the Russian army, including a retreat from an effort to seize the capital, Kyiv, and a counteroffensive that drove Moscow’s forces out of the Kharkiv area.

Shoigu spent over 20 years conducting varied tasks before being named defense minister in 2012. In 1991, he was appointed head of the Russian Rescue Corps disaster response organization, which later became the Ministry of Emergency Situations. He got visible in the post. As the rescue corps absorbed the armed Civil Defense Troops, he was promoted to general despite having no military background.

Shoigu does not have the same power level as Patrushev, who has long been the country’s top security official. However, the post he will occupy — the same job that Patrushev fought to elevate from a low bureaucratic role to one of significant influence — will still have some weight, according to Mark Galeotti, the president of the Mayak Intelligence consultancy.

Despite the changes at the top, high-level security materials destined for the president’s eyes will continue to transit through the Security Council Secretariat. “You can’t just institutionally turn around a bureaucracy and how it works overnight,” he stated.

Thousands of civilians have fled Russia’s resumed ground offensive in Ukraine’s northeast, which has targeted towns and villages with artillery and mortar fire, officials said Sunday.

The fierce fighting has caused at least one Ukrainian battalion to evacuate from the Kharkiv region, ceding more territory to Russian forces across less-defended villages in the so-called contested gray zone near the Russian border.

By Sunday afternoon, Vovchansk, one of the major towns in the northeast with a prewar population of 17,000, had emerged as a battleground.

Volodymyr Tymoshko, the chief of the Kharkiv regional police, stated that Russian forces were approaching the town from three angles.

An Associated Press team stationed in a nearby village witnessed plumes of smoke billowing from the town as Russian forces fired shells. Evacuation teams worked tirelessly throughout the day to transport inhabitants, most of whom were elderly, out of harm’s way.

At least 4,000 citizens have fled the Kharkiv region since Moscow’s forces initiated the operation on Friday, according to Gov. Oleh Syniehubov’s social media statement. Heavy fighting raged Sunday along the northeast front line, with Russian soldiers attacking 27 towns in the last 24 hours, he added.

Analysts believe the Russian effort is intended to take advantage of ammunition shortages before promised Western supplies reach the front lines.

Putin Replaces Shoigu As Russia’s Defense Minister As He Starts His 5th Term

The Ukrainian military said the Kremlin is employing the standard Russian technique of launching disproportionate amounts of fire and infantry assaults to deplete Ukrainian troops and weapons. By increasing fighting in what was previously a static sector of the front line, Russian forces threatened to shut down Ukrainian soldiers in the northeast while also gaining ground further south.

It follows Russia’s increased attacks on energy infrastructure and settlements in March, which many anticipated were part of a coordinated effort to prepare the stage for an onslaught.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that its forces had conquered four villages near the border with Ukraine’s Kharkiv area, in addition to the five villages reported to have been taken on Saturday. Because of the dynamic combat and continual intense shelling, these regions were most likely under-fortified, allowing Russia to move more easily.

Ukraine’s leadership has not acknowledged Moscow’s advantages. However, Tymoshko, the commander of the Kharkiv regional police, stated that Strilecha, Pylna, and Borsivika were under Russian possession and that infantry was being brought in from their direction to organize attacks in other beleaguered villages, such as Hlyboke and Lukiantsi.

SOURCE – (AP)

Authorities in British Columbia Canada are urging all remaining residents in Fort Nelson to leave immediately, despite improving weather conditions, after many were already evacuated due to a fast-growing wildfires.

The blaze, which started Friday, almost doubled in size the following day, reaching about 17 square kilometers (4,200 acres). BC Wildfire Service maps showed the fire burning just a few kilometers (miles) west of Fort Nelson’s city limits.

Fort Nelson is located in the far northeastern corner of British Columbia, about 1,600 kilometers (995 miles) from Vancouver. Fort Nelson and the Fort Nelson Indian Reserve have a combined population of about 3,000.

In 2023, Canada witnessed a record number of wildfires that also caused choking smoke in parts of the U.S. and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate across British Columbia.

Authorities in Alberta also issued an alert about a wildfire nearly 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) southwest of the oil sands city of Fort McMurray that could impact visibility on highways in some areas. No evacuation order has been given so far for the major Canadian oil city.

In 2016, more than 80,000 people evacuated from Fort McMurray, in the heart of Canada’s oil sands, as a fire torched 1,600 homes and other buildings. The high winds pushed smoke across Alberta on Saturday, putting the city of Edmonton under an air quality advisory with hazard levels rated at 10-plus — or “very high risk” — forecast.

Meteorologists are not anticipating rain and have advised people to stay indoors.

Online footage shared by locals from the Fort Nelson wildfire showed thick plumes of smoke rising high into the sky, with houses in the foreground. In some photos, haze seemed to cover wide areas.

The Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and Fort Nelson First Nation issued a joint statement warning people choosing to stay that “emergency medical services are not available, nor are groceries or other amenities.”

The municipality mayor, Rob Fraser, said most of the residents in and around Fort Nelson have been evacuated, adding that police were going door to door to ensure everyone got out.

Health authorities said Fort Nelson General Hospital has been safely evacuated and closed until further notice.

Annual Wildfires in British Columbia

Wildfires are not new to British Columbia; they occur every year. Every year, hundreds of fires break out, some caused by lightning strikes, others by human negligence. As the temperature warms, fire seasons get longer and more intense. Without quick action, wildfires will only intensify, according to experts.

Combating these infernos comes at a startling cost. British Columbia spends millions of dollars deploying troops, aircraft, and equipment. Fires devastate wildlife habitats and emit enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Economies suffer as tourism declines and companies close during evacuations.

Regardless of the obstacles, BC fights hard. Firefighters have intensive training. Advanced modeling predicts fire behavior. Public education increases awareness. Nonetheless, the fires continue to spread, fueled by heat and drought. Wildfires have become British Columbia’s yearly summer scourge, and there is no end in sight.

 

Former President Donald Trump attended a rally in New Jersey on Saturday, again blaming President Joe Biden for the court cases he is facing as the probable Republican nominees prepare to square off in the November 2024 presidential election.

Blasting President Biden as “a total moron,” Trump repeatedly described the cases against him as politically motivated and timed to hurt his campaigning ability in front of a gathering of almost 100,000 people.

“He is a fool. “He’s not a smart man,” Trump stated about Biden. “I talk about him differently now because now the gloves are off.”

Lisa Fagan, a spokesman for the city of Wildwood, where the protest was held, told The Associated Press that she estimated a throng of approximately 100,000 people based on her personal observations on the ground Saturday, having witnessed “dozens” of prior events in the same place.

Several high-profile endorsers joined Trump on stage, including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal charges of sexual misconduct and patronizing an underage prostitute in New York in 2011.

The beachfront gathering, described by Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., as the largest political gathering in state history, was intended to serve as a show of force at a critical time for Trump, who is facing dozens of felony charges in four separate criminal cases with the election less than six months away.

Massive Crow of Trump Supporters

Thousands of Trump supporters, dressed in “Never Surrender” T-shirts and red “Make America Great Again” hats, gathered onto the sand between the boardwalk and carnival attractions to meet the former Republican president hours before he took the stage.

“The everyday American people are 100% behind him,” said Doreen O’Neill, a 62-year-old Philadelphia nurse.

“They have to cheat and smear him and humiliate him in that courtroom every single day,” O’Neill stated. “This country is going to go insane if they steal the election again.”

Trump has repeatedly accused the Biden administration and Democratic leaders in New York of exploiting the court system to prevent his return to the White House. Prosecutors claim the former president breached the law to conceal an affair with a porn performer that would have jeopardized his first presidential campaign.

On Saturday, Trump said that even those he accuses of politically motivated indictments did not pursue every case they could, citing the boosts his campaign has received with each wave of accusations.

“I heard they were going to do a couple of other things and they said from Washington … ‘we’re indicting him into the White House,'” Trump stated. “They said, ‘Don’t do it.'”

Gag Order from New York Judge

While Trump seized on his legal difficulties on Saturday, a judge’s gag order — and the possibility of incarceration — limit his ability to publicly remark on witnesses, jurors, and anyone involved in the New York trial, which is anticipated to last most of the month. The court in the case has already fined Trump $9,000 for breaking the injunction and warned him he might face jail time if he does not comply.

The order makes no mention of Judge Juan M. Merchan, whom Trump described as “highly conflicted,” or District Attorney Alvin Bragg, both of whom Trump claimed are “doing the bidding for crooked Joe Biden.”

Trump’s role as a defendant has reduced his capacity to persuade voters on the campaign trail.

He spent last week’s off-day from court in Wisconsin and Michigan, both battleground states for the general election. And on Saturday, he campaigned with tens of thousands of voters in New Jersey, a solidly Democratic state.

Parts of New Jersey contain deep-red enclaves, and the southern shoreline in particular attracts tourists and summer homeowners from neighboring Pennsylvania, a vital swing state.

Saturday’s trip to the New Jersey Shore resort was not Trump’s first.

While president, Trump staged a rally in January 2020 to celebrate Van Drew, a New Jersey congressman who had recently defected from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in response to the former president’s first impeachment.

Trump drew a crowd that lined the streets, packed bars, and supported countless merchants in what is typically a sleepy city in the winter. The summer season is almost here for the resort noted for its large beaches, boardwalk games, and shops.

Wildwood is located in New Jersey’s 2nd District, which Van Drew has served for three terms and includes all or part of six counties in southern New Jersey. It voted for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020, despite previously supporting Barack Obama.