Russian President Vladimir Putin has removed defense minister Sergei shyu from his post and appointed him as the head of the National Security Council Putin's long-standing Ally Shu served as Russia's defense minister since 2012 according to the Kremlin Shu will also be responsible for the military industrial complex Putin has proposed former deputy Minister Deputy Prime Minister Andre Bella usof as shu's replacement in the defense Ministry for more on this now we're joined by DW correspondent Vicki hristova in the Latvian Capital Ria hi Vicki thanks for being here Putin has removed defense minister shyu and appointed him as security Secretary of the security Council what more can you tell us about the shakeup we saw just a few hours ago this major reshuffle in Russia's military leadership uh Putin proposed replacing Shu as defense minister and appointing Ed him as Secretary of the National Security Council and now Andre beluso has no military background but will now replace Shu as defense minister until now beluso was considered um by some uh one of Putin's closest advisers on economic Affairs um now Shu has been defense minister since 2012 and has led Russia uh on the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and uh is widely seen as actually one of Putin's most trusted lieutenants um Putin has um a close professional relationship with Shu but not only um he's also close with him personally H they have also been seen um together on Retreats of in the Siberian Wilderness for example so for to some this reshuffle in power might come as a bit of a surprise right now Sho was defense minister for about 12 years he was in charge of a big mission which is Russia's fullscale invasion of Ukraine so why replace him now well the krein so far has made few comments but a spokesperson Pasco said that the defense Ministry has to stay Innovative uh and has to be open to the creation of conditions for economic competitiveness um now just to remind our audience Putin started his fifth presidential term just after being inaugurated this week earlier this week um and as part of that as part of Russian law the entire Russian cabinet um resigned um now shu's uh Ally uh Deputy defense minister timour Ivanov as a reminder was arrested uh in April this year on bribery charges um and this by some analysts has been interpreted as an attack on Shu perhaps possibly leading to his dismissal as a role of a defense minister um now uh Yi pin uh as you might remember who was head of the vagna group before dying ding last year in a plane crash was a vocal critic of Shu and often C for his removal um so far from what we know uh shu is the only Minister being replaced from the members of cabinet okay that's DW correspondent Ricky Hova in Ria thank you so much for being here