Sergei Shoigu

 ( 1955 Births ) 

In 1999 he became one of the leaders of the Russian pro-government party Unity, created by the Kremlin in opposition to the anti-Yeltsin elites of the Fatherland – All Russia alliance. Unity allowed for the rise of Vladimir Putin to president and in 2001 was combined into the ruling United Russia party, although Shoigu was the only delegate to vote against the merger. In 1999, Shoigu was awarded Russia's most prestigious state award: Hero of the Russian Federation.

In March 2009, he proposed a law that would criminalize criticism of Soviet military tactics during World War II, which resulted in large numbers of Soviet casualties.

Serdyukov was unpopular with senior military leaders and seen by them as a civilian with no military background, something that Shoigu attempted to address by symbolically tying himself to the military through wearing an army general's uniform, reviving historical units dissolved under the reforms, and reinstating officials dismissed by Serdyukov. Furthermore, Shoigu appealed for support for reform within the army rather than taking a confrontational stance, appointed deputy ministers of defense from the military, and removed Serdyukov-appointed civilian tax service officials from the top echelons of the Ministry of Defense.

As defence minister, Shoigu continued aspects of Serdyukov's attempts at modernizing the Russian Armed Forces through reform. This included the creation of the Special Operations Forces Command to facilitate rapid intervention in conflicts within the perceived Russian sphere of influence and counterterrorism efforts. Serdyukov's goals of increasing the share of the Russian Armed Forces made up of professional contract servicemen rather than conscripts continued under Shoigu. However, the demographic challenge of a decreasing pool of military-aged and -eligible males forced him to increase national conscription quotas in early 2013, including even North Caucasians perceived as a security risk by authorities such as Chechens. This followed on from Serdyukov's initiatives of reducing available draft exemptions.

In November 2012, Shoigu decided to resurrect the tradition of Suvorov and Nakhimov cadets participating in the 9 May parade.

In July 2013 Shoigu ordered commanders to begin every morning in the barracks with a rendition of the Russian anthem, to compile an obligatory military-patriotic book reading list and to take responsibility for the preparation of demobilization albums (a type of memento scrapbook, which in Russian military tradition is given to conscripts upon completion of their service). In August 2013 he ordered all Defense Ministry civilian workers, other staff and management employees to wear uniforms.

In February 2014, Shoigu said Russia was planning to sign agreements with Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, the Seychelles, Singapore, and several other countries either to house permanent military bases and/or to house airplane refueling stations in those countries. Over the next year, only an agreement with Vietnam was effectively signed.

In March 2015 Russia under Shoigu's defence ministry halted all activities related to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.

In October 2016 Shoigu hosted 56 representatives from 31 different OSCE nations, with Shoigu stating that the observers "had a chance to see with their own eyes that Russia had fully implemented its obligations on ensuring confidence and security in Europe". The observers were also shown new weapons deployed to the Russian Aerospace Force, Ground and Airborne Forces. The previous visit of the OSCE observers took place in 2011.

In July 2016 Shoigu said that he had "deployed more air defense systems in the southwest of" and "also deployed a 'self-sufficient' contingent of troops in Crimea", adding "Since 2013 ... we have formed four divisions, nine brigades and 22 regiments. They include two missile brigades armed with Iskander missile complexes, which has allowed to boost fire power to destroy the potential adversary."

In July 2018 Shoigu warned that the Poroshenko administration of Ukraine was not fulfilling the Minsk agreements which were signed in order to end the war in Donbas.

On 16 December 2015, speaking to the members of the State Duma behind closed doors, Shoigu mentioned the possibility of the Russian forces "reaching the Euphrates" in Syria.

In June 2016, Russia Today, while reporting minister Shoigu's visit to Hmeymim air base, showed RBK-500 ZAB-2.5SM incendiary cluster bombs being loaded onto Russian airplanes. After this information was discovered to be inconsistent with official Russian statements, the video was removed. It was later reinstated. An editorial note below the video made no mention of the weapon, saying a frame in the video has caused "concern for personnel safety" because of a pilot's close-up. "Upon re-evaluation it was deemed that the frame did not pose any risks; it had since been restored and the video is up in its original cut", the RT statement said.

On 11 December 2017, days after declaring Syria had been "completely liberated" from Islamic State and with the campaign liberating the western bank of the Euphrates in its final days, Putin visited the Russian base in Syria, where he announced that he had ordered the partial withdrawal of the forces deployed to Syria. Several hours later, Shoigu said the troops had already begun to return.

On 26 December 2017, Shoigu said that Russia had set about "forming a permanent grouping" at the Tartus naval facility and the Hmeymim airbase, after Putin approved their structure and personnel strength. On the same day, the upper chamber of parliament approved the ratification of an agreement between Russia and Syria on expanding the Tartus naval facility, which envisages turning it into a full-fledged naval base. Russia's upper house ratifies agreement on naval base in Syria's Tartus TASS, 26 December 2017.

On 17 September 2018, during multiple missile strikes by Israeli F-16 jets at targets in western Syria, Russia's Il-20 ELINT reconnaissance plane returning to Khmeimim Air Base, with 15 Russian servicemen on board, was inadvertently downed by a Syrian S-200 surface-to-air missile. Russia's defence minister the following day blamed Israel's military for the accident and re-affirmed its stance in a minute-by-minute report presented on 23 September. Early on 20 September, Russia's government-run news agency reported Russia had announced multiple areas of eastern Mediterranean near Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus" shut for air and sea traffic until 26 September, due to the Russian Navy's drills in the area. В Восточном Средиземноморье закрыты морские районы в связи с ракетными пусками ВМФ РФ Interfax, 20 September 2018. Following the shoot down incident, Shoigu on 24 September said that within two weeks, the Syrian army would receive S-300 air-defense missile systems to strengthen Syria's combat air defence capabilities; a series of other military measures were announced such as radio-electronic jamming of "satellite navigation, onboard radars and communications systems used by military aircraft attacking targets in Syrian territory", in the areas of the Mediterranean off the Syrian coast. Shoigu said in August 2021 that Russia had tested 320 new weapons over the course of its campaign in Syria.

In an August 2021 "Solovyov Live" YouTube channel interview, Shoigu said referring to his tenure in the Ministry that "The requirements for fulfilling the defense procurement plan have risen dramatically. Over the past nine years, we have received 15,500 weapon systems for the ground forces. In 1999–2002, we had gotten 10 or 19 aircraft at best, that is, fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft all together. That's why now that we receive 140–150 aircraft annually, this is quite a different story."

In August 2021, Shoigu praised military cooperation between Russia and China.

On 11 February 2022, Shoigu met UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace. Shoigu denied that Russia was planning an invasion of Ukraine. Wallace agreed at the meeting which also included General Valery Gerasimov that it was important to implement the Minsk agreements "as a clear way forward". On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a large-scale military invasion of Ukraine. Shoigu said the purpose of the invasion "is to protect the Russian Federation from the military threat posed by Western countries, who are trying to use the Ukrainian people in the fight against our country". The sources say the decision to invade Ukraine was made by Putin and a small group of in Putin's inner circle, including Sergei Shoigu and Putin's national security adviser Nikolai Patrushev. In a 11 March video conference with Putin, Shoigu claimed that "everything is going to plan".

On 24 April, Putin decided to broadcast with English subtitles an 11-minute long Siege of Mariupol situation report meeting with Shoigu.

On 13 May, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin initiated a telephone conversation with Shoigu, the first call since 18 February. The call lasted about an hour with Austin urging an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

Also on 13 May, former FSB officer and former DPR Supreme Commander Igor Girkin harshly criticized Shoigu, accusing him of "criminal negligence" in conducting the invasion.

On 16 August, Shoigu said that Russia does not need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, as "its main purpose is to deter a nuclear attack. Its use is limited to extraordinary circumstances."

At the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security in August 2022, Shoigu hosted 35 defense ministers from Asia, Africa and Latin America. He described South Africa as a "friendly state" and that South Africa's support has helped counter NATO pressure on Russia. Shoigu and Putin attended the military exercise in the Russian Far East. Beyond Russian troops, the exercises also included military forces from China, India, Mongolia and several post-Soviet states, among others.

After large Ukrainian counteroffensives in September 2022, Igor Girkin said that Shoigu should be executed by firing squad. The Russia-installed governor of Ukraine's Kherson region Kirill Stremousov said in a video shared on social media that "Many are saying that the Defense Minister – who allowed things to come to this – should simply shoot himself like a real officer."

On 21 September 2022, Shoigu said in a televised speech that Russia was not so much at war with Ukraine and the Ukrainian army as with the "Western world" and NATO.

In September 2022, Shoigu claimed that 5,397 Russian soldiers had been killed in the war in Ukraine. He said that the 2022 Russian mobilization is being carried out to control "already liberated territories" in Ukraine. According to Shoigu, it is planned to mobilize 300,000 reservists. Shoigu said the mobilized people could only be sent to combat zones after "training and combat coordination". However, some of the mobilized Russian men were killed less than two weeks after being drafted, meaning conscripted civilians are being sent to a combat zone without basic military training. On 28 October, Shoigu said that 82,000 mobilized reservists had already been deployed in the combat zone.

On 12 October 2022, the independent Russian media project iStories reported that more than 90,000 Russian soldiers had been killed, seriously wounded or gone missing in Ukraine, citing sources close to the Kremlin.

On 23 October 2022, Shoigu said, without providing evidence, that Ukraine could escalate the war with a dirty bomb—or an explosive that contains radioactive waste material. The UK, US and French governments rejected what they called "Russia's transparently false allegations" against Ukraine, adding: "The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation."

On 1 November 2022, Shoigu admitted that the Russian military was destroying Ukrainian energy facilities. On 6 December 2022, he said that Russian forces are "inflicting massive strikes" on Ukraine.

On 21 December 2022, Shoigu said that the war in Ukraine would continue in 2023 "until the tasks are completed". He declared that victory was "inevitable" and claimed that Russian troops were fighting what he called "neo-Nazism and terrorism".

On 18 April 2023, Shoigu met with Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu in Moscow. Shoigu said that their countries' military cooperation was a "stabilising" force in the world. They discussed expanding military cooperation. On 28 April 2023, he met with Indian Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh as part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation defence ministers' meeting in New Delhi, India.

On 6 June 2023, Shoigu said that Ukrainian "offensive attempts were thwarted, the enemy was stopped, Russian soldiers and officers showed courage and heroism in the battles", while claiming Ukraine had suffered "significant and incomparable casualties". On 20 June 2023, Shoigu stated that the Ukrainian counteroffensive began on June 4, and since then Ukraine had launched 263 attacks on Russian positions, all of which have been unsuccessful, and that Russian forces had lost no territory or settlements. The statement, which is directly contradictory to publicly available information, has been assessed by the ISW as "even-keeled" and an adaption to Russian command strategy following the chaos in the Russian information space during the Kharkiv and Kherson counteroffensives of 2022.

In July 2023, the UK Ministry of Defense reported that Russia had suffered an average of around 400 casualties per day for 17 months. As of July 2023, the Russian Ministry of Defense was still keeping secret the actual number of casualties.

In July 2023, Shoigu and a Chinese delegation led by Communist Party Politburo member Li Hongzhong arrived in North Korea for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War. He met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun-nam.

On 23 April 2024, Shoigu’s deputy Timur Ivanov was arrested for taking bribes.

In a video released on 23 June 2023 at the start of the Wagner Group rebellion, Prigozhin said that Russian government justifications for the Russian invasion of Ukraine were based on lies. He accused the Russian Defense Ministry under Shoigu of "trying to deceive society and the president and tell us how there was crazy aggression from Ukraine and that they were planning to attack us with the whole of NATO". According to Prigozhin, "Shoigu killed thousands of the most combat-ready Russian soldiers in the first days of the war. The mentally ill scumbags decided 'It's okay, we'll throw in a few thousand more Russian men as 'cannon fodder'. 'They'll die under artillery fire, but we'll get what we want'."

Despite being the target of Prigozhin's ire, Shoigu made no public appearances during the incident, leading Russian media to speculate that he had lost Putin's confidence and that his removal had been a condition of the agreement that ended the rebellion on 24 June. However, on 26 June, the Russian Ministry of Defence published a video allegedly showing Shoigu meeting Russian officers in Ukraine.

On 25 June 2024, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Shoigu on charges of alleged war crimes for missile strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

On 5 August 2024 Shoigu visited Tehran for high-level meetings with the new Pezeshkian government, the General Staff of Iran and members of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

On 4 and 17 June 2025, Shoigu visited Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong-un, amid calls in Russian state media for increased North Korean military support in the war in Ukraine.

On 25 February 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United States added Shoigu to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.

Shoigu was sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

On 28 February 2022, the Government of Canada "further amended its Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations to add eighteen members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation responsible for" Russian actions in Ukraine, "including President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuychenko, and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov".