Thread by @MarkGaleotti

Rather depressing that new Defence Minister Belousov is sporting a uniform now for Security Council, even if he has the silver stars of a civil servant, not gold of a general. Performative dress does matter though – a short thread 1/

Until Shoigu, civilian defence ministers wore suits – even Sergei Ivanov, who as a former FSB general did have the legit right to go uniformed. Apart from just being less tacky, it also symbolised civilian control of the military 2/

Shoigu is something of a master of spin (to terrible effect considering how far he fooled Putin as to the state of the Russian military), and his decision to affect a uniform was done for reasons 3/

1. To try and convince generals who were v unhappy after the Serdyukov/Makarov reforms, that he was on their side. In fairness, he did do a good job of rebuilding bridges 4/

2. To try and play on his MChS Emergencies Ministry background – which is a uniformed service – to present himself as state servant rather than just another grey-suited politico. (He was happy to be grey-suited politico when it was useful, of course) 5/

3. Later, subliminally to hammer home the “Russia at war” message and his position at the fore (esp important as he had counselled against annexation of Crimea in 2014 and had been lukewarm about sending troops to Donbas) 6/

(A retired soldier once said to me in 2015 he suspected “the less Shoigu is happy with what’s going on, and the Kremlin suspects it, the more he’s in uniform”) 7/

Belousov has no military/uniformed experience, but in the modern equivalent of Peter the Great’s Table of Ranks, a State Councillor 1st class (like Belousov) corresponds to the military rank of General 8/

The tell is in his epaulets, with the silver star and ministry crest. So *technically* this is OK. But… 9/

Wearing a suit would have been both classy and a sign of independence from the generals – whose incompetence and corruption he is there to fix. It would again have symbolised that even now, civilian power takes precedence 10/

Instead, while it is still too early to know how he will do, I fear his decision to don uniform for a meeting, not even Victory Day parade or the like, suggests a degree of cringe, of trying to accommodate all those scary military men 11/

He’s going to have to get over that, if he’s really to do his job. 12/
spectator.co.uk/article/what-t…

And finally, as I said before, it’s just not classy! 13/end