Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation from May 12, 2024 (before that - First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation from January 21, 2020).
Born in 1959 in Moscow.
In 1981, he graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov with a degree in economic cybernetics, then continued his postgraduate studies at the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences (CEMI). In 1988, Belousov defended his candidate’s thesis at CEMI on the topic “Simulation modeling of mechanisms for the formation and use of working capital (multi-sectoral approach).” In 2006, he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Contradictions and prospects for the development of the reproduction system of the Russian economy.”
In the 1990s, he worked at the Institute of National Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2000, Belousov founded and headed the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting (TsMAKP), where his brother, Dmitry Belousov, also a member of the “Putin’s List”, currently works.
In 2006, German Gref called him to be his deputy at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation, and in 2008, when Vladimir Putin became prime minister again, Belousov joined the Government of the Russian Federation - as director of the department of economics and finance.
From May 2012 to June 2013, Belousov served as Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, and in 2013 he was appointed to the position of economic assistant in the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation.
Belousov always advocated increasing government spending and, in general, strengthening the role of the state in the economy. Back in the mid-2000s, when he was German Gref’s deputy, he argued with then Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin that the oil windfalls collected in the Stabilization Fund should not be saved, but spent on the same infrastructure projects. In addition, as Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation in the early 2010s, he called himself a “Marxist” at meetings.
According to available information, Andrei Belousov is a “hard statist” in his views and believes in a “ring of enemies” around Russia, and in 2014, only he from Putin’s “economic circle” supported the occupation of Crimea.
It should be noted that Andrei Belousov has a reputation as a person who has a certain influence on Vladimir Putin: in particular, in 2017, RBC called Belousov one of the officials who “infected Putin with the digital economy and blockchain,” and some experts also call Belousov the main ideologist of the “very controversial" VAT increase in 2019.
In January 2020, he was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, and for some time, due to the diagnosis of COVID-19 in the current Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Mishustin, he was acting Prime Minister.
In recent years, Belousov remained “true to his views” and was especially active in searching for and seizing excess profits from exporters “for the needs of the state.”
On May 12, 2024, he was appointed Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation instead of Sergei Shoigu, which - due to his “absolutely civilian background” (even against the background of Sergei Shoigu, who did not serve in the army) - became a kind of sensation. In the expert community, the most popular explanation for this appointment was the Kremlin’s need to “restore order” to the ineffective and corrupt Russian Ministry of Defense (which can be considered a tacit admission by Putin that “the special military operation in Ukraine is not going according to plan”).
Andrey Belousov is the chairman of the board of directors of JSC Russian Railways for construction. Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. Member of the scientific and dissertation councils of the Institute of National Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Member of the scientific and editorial council of the journal “Problems of Forecasting”. Deputy Chairman of the Government Commission for Control of Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation. Doctor of Economics (2006). Honored Economist of the Russian Federation (2007). Acting State Advisor of the Russian Federation, 1st class (2011).
Ensuring the functioning of the state power system under the dictatorship of Vladimir Putin.
Andrei Belousov is the living embodiment of the ideology of Putin’s state capitalism, that “harsh hand of the state” that subjugates the country’s economy so that it “mobilizes” and serves as a resource for the implementation of the Kremlin’s large-scale adventures.
It is Andrei Belousov who can be considered one of the main (among representatives of the “economic bloc” of the Government of the Russian Federation) culprits (and, what is important, supporters) of the successful preparation of Vladimir Putin’s regime for a full-scale war.
Since 2022, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he has been under international sanctions from all EU countries, the USA and a number of other states.
It is obvious that after the appointment of Andrei Belousov as Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, the degree of his personal guilt for the crimes of Vladimir Putin’s regime increases even more and from that moment on includes not only responsibility for maintaining the functioning of the management system and the militarization of the economy of the Russian Federation, but also directly for the war crimes of the Russian army.