There was an expectation that the appointment of Vladimir Putin’s new government would see some change in the Russian security apparatus, but few predicted that Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu would be replaced by an economist, Andrey Belousov, with Shoigu becoming secretary of the Security Council.

With an economist taking over the defence ministry, and the old minister taking up a policy and advisory role, the technocrats are in the ascendant.