Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed three new deputy ministers to the Russian Defense Ministry, including a woman believed to be a distant relative.
Anna Tsivileva, whose maiden name is Putina, will be responsible for housing and social security for members of the armed forces.
Another new deputy minister, Pavel Fradkov, is the son of the former intelligence chief and prime minister Mikhail Fradkov. The younger Fradkov is tasked with managing the army’s property and assets.
Former Deputy Minister of Finance Leonid Gorin was appointed First Deputy Minister of Defense by presidential decree.
According to Russian media research, Tsivileva, 52, is related to the Russian president through her father. Her husband is Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev. Together they owned a large coal company.
Both are on the sanctions lists of the European Union, the United Kingdom and other countries for benefiting from their close ties to the Russian government. Tsivileva recently led a state fund to support soldiers deployed in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In a Telegram post, she thanked Putin for the trust and responsibility he had placed in her, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Tuesday.
At the start of his new term in May, Putin fired his long-serving defense minister Sergei Shoigu. Several men from his environment are being investigated for corruption. The Russian president appointed economic expert Alexander Beloussov as the new defense minister.
Independent experts cited by Izvestia noted that the new deputy ministers are not part of Beloussov’s team, but rather come from Putin’s immediate circle.
Economist Konstantin Sonin wrote on X that Putin had “doubled the number of loyalists without expertise or experience in the relevant government positions.”
