Putin approved the new composition of the Russian government

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees on the appointment of government members and service directors, according to the Kremlin website.

In particular, Putin approved the ministers of the security bloc and the head of the Foreign Ministry. Andrei Belousov became the Minister of Defense; the posts of heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Emergency Situations were retained by Vladimir Kolokoltsev and Alexander Kurenkov, respectively. At the same time, Sergei Lavrov was re-appointed as head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Konstantin Chuychenko remained head of the Ministry of Justice.

For the first time, Anton Alikhanov (Minister of Industry and Trade), Mikhail Degtyarev (Minister of Sports), Oksana Lut (Minister of Agriculture), Roman Starovoit (Minister of Transport) and Sergei Tsivilev (Minister of Energy) received ministerial portfolios.

The new deputy prime ministers were the former Minister of Agriculture, the son of Nikolai Patrushev, Dmitry Patrushev, as well as the former Minister of Transport, Vitaly Savelyev.

In addition, Putin signed decrees on appointments in the leadership of the presidential administration. For the first time, former Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and former Governor of the Tula Region Alexey Dyumin became assistants to the head of state.

Putin will meet today with the new cabinet of ministers, press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov (who was also reappointed to this post) told TASS.

• On May 14, the State Duma approved the candidacies of ministers for the new government of Russia, and on May 13, the candidacies of ten deputy prime ministers of the government. In turn, the Federation Council approved the candidacies of the ministers of defense, justice, foreign and internal affairs.