The Peter Zeihan Podcast Series - Putin Removes Sergei Shoigu as Russian Defense Minister || Peter Zeihan

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Well, I hate to say it, but Putin might actually be making a solid strategic move by removing Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu from office. Full Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/zeihan/putin-removes-defense-minister

Hey everyone, Peter Zion here, coming to you for cause in Poland. The news today is that Russian President Vladimir Putin is apparently public newsing about the idea of Riftiflacing the defense minister, Sorgh Shoygu, somebody else. I can't emphasize enough that this would be the single biggest shift in the Ukraine war to date because Shogu is arguably the least competent public servant in the world at the moment. The only reason he got the job as defense minister is because he's a buddy of Putin's going back to his date, in East Germany. He doesn't know what he's doing. He has no military experience. The only he has bit out is stealing. Maybe one third of the appropriation budgets for the

years if he's been. Defense Hunister had gone to him personally and a number third have gone to his cronnas. So he is probably the single biggest factor in clay right now why the Russians have not been doing well in Ukraine war. And if he were to be sacked and replaced with like an average third grader who doesn't even speak Russian, there would probably be a significant increase in Russia's capacity to prosecute this war. So it's Russian cronyism in many ways, has been helping the Ukrainians consistently. And we're now at the beginnings of seeing the Russians kind of turn the page and become more of a normal powers. Every, every, every, every Russian war in history starts as a disaster because the corruption

that's endemic to the Russian system crushes a system, there's no morale, there's no sense of camaraderie, and the logistics are awful. And then bit by bit by bit, the Russians tend to rally. slowly, sloppily, never even reaching what you would consider to be at the global average, but improving nonetheless. And we've seen that in tactics, we've seen that in logistics, we're seeing that in weapons systems, and it's very possible that we will now see that in leadership for tonight.