Gb: Shoigu tries to improve his image
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu “is probably aware of the need to maintain a positive image in the face of increasingly overt criticism from some Russians”, writes the British Defense Ministry in its daily intelligence update. Over the past week, underlines the report posted on Twitter, Shoigu has maintained a high public profile, probably with the aim of demonstrating that he is in control of strategic issues as Ukraine accelerates offensive operations. The minister has commented on Russia’s defensive operations at least twice, including with “almost certainly exaggerated” claims about Ukrainian losses, London recalls: this contrasts with other key periods of the war in which he had disappeared from the public eye. The Russian defense chief also urged the country’s defense industry to redouble its efforts and criticized officers of the Western Military District for not sending reserve armored vehicles to the front quickly enough, London experts noted.