Video goes viral on the internet
Does Putin show Shoigu the cold shoulder when visiting the clinic?
06/14/2023 11:43 am
How good is the current relationship between Russian President Putin and his Defense Minister Shoigu? A short video clip invites you to speculate. You can see how the head of the Kremlin keeps his distance from the minister.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a military hospital near Moscow on Monday, where he handed out medals and spoke to injured soldiers. The Kremlin chief was also received at the clinic in Krasnogorsk by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. A short video clip gives the impression that Putin gave his minister the cold shoulder at the meeting.
In front of the Kremlin’s cameras, Putin first shook hands with the soldiers in a reception hall before moving in the direction of Shoigu and standing next to him. The minister then took a step towards the Kremlin chief, whereupon the latter glanced at Shoigu and then turned left, his back to him.
Security expert Jimmy Rushton, who lives in Kiev, shared the relevant scene on Twitter. He wrote: “You don’t have to be an expert on body language to understand what Putin is currently thinking about his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.” As of this morning, the clip has been viewed more than 750,000 times.
Shoigu has been defense minister since 2012 and is considered a close confidante of Putin. But since the setbacks by Russian forces in Ukraine, the minister has become the target of military bloggers and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who blame him for failures. So far, Putin has not publicly defended his minister.
According to the Washington Post, the conflict between the Wagner group and the Defense Department fits in with Putin’s strategy of creating separate spheres of power controlled by rival groups so that no one becomes too powerful for him. While this approach may serve to keep Putin in power, the strategy proved very damaging in the war against Ukraine, the newspaper analyzed last month.