Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced a cabinet reshuffle on October 19. The government will have four new deputy prime ministers and a new transport minister. The State Duma is expected to approve the appointments shortly, after which the Russian president will sign decrees formalizing them. Meduza has compiled the key takeaways from Russian journalists and news outlets covering the reshuffle.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov will become one of the new deputy prime ministers while retaining his current post. Siluanov, who has led the Finance Ministry since 2011, has served as a deputy prime minister before: From 2018 to 2020, he was first deputy prime minister in Dmitry Medvedev’s cabinet.
Mishustin’s government previously had no deputy prime minister overseeing finance. Experts unanimously see the appointment as strengthening Siluanov’s position. Yet according to Faridaily, Mishustin has long wanted to replace Siluanov as finance minister with someone from his own team, such as Federal Tax Service head Daniil Yegorov.
Commenting on Siluanov’s appointment as deputy prime minister, Mishustin’s spokesman Boris Belyakov said that “as external pressure intensifies, ensuring financial stability, a balanced budget, and efficient spending takes on particular importance.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov linked Siluanov’s new post to the need to “continue ensuring macroeconomic stability.”
The Bell reported that it remains unclear which agencies will fall under Siluanov’s authority as deputy prime minister. But as one source wryly told Vedomosti, Deputy Prime Minister Siluanov will now certainly be issuing instructions to the Finance Ministry — which will make his job easier.
Alexandra Prokopenko, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, wrote that making Siluanov a deputy prime minister represents “a return to a familiar arrangement, not preparation for a move” toward replacing the prime minister. She wrote that Alexey Kudrin also served as deputy prime minister and finance minister simultaneously. “The more interesting question is how responsibilities will be divided,” she wrote. If Siluanov oversees the economy as a whole — currently Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak’s responsibility — “that’s a real power gain. If not, it’s a title on top of the authority he already has.”
Other appointments are also being linked to Siluanov’s growing influence. His first deputy at the Finance Ministry, 41-year-old Irina Okladnikova, will become the government’s chief of staff, also with the rank of deputy prime minister. At the Finance Ministry, Okladnikova was responsible for drafting and implementing the federal budget. According to Kommersant, she will now oversee how efficiently budget funds are spent, manage the national debt, and build up the National Wealth Fund. The Bell reported that these were previously all tools “that Mishustin’s team could use to keep an eye on the Finance Ministry.”
The Bell linked these personnel decisions to the fact that Russia’s war against Ukraine is costing far more than budgeted. Kommersant noted that recent federal budgets looked relatively balanced on paper, but spending rose in practice. The outlet suggested that expanded powers might allow Siluanov to rein in spending.
As government chief of staff, Okladnikova will replace Dmitry Grigorenko, who is considered one of the officials closest to Mishustin. At the time of publication, there had been no official announcement about Grigorenko’s next job. Sources who spoke to Vedomosti and RBC said he could be headed to Sber. Experts see Grigorenko’s departure as weakening Mishustin’s position. The chief of staff decides which proposals reach the prime minister. Previously, business representatives had a chance to secure changes to Finance Ministry proposals before they reached the prime minister’s desk for signature, The Bell reported. Now the post will go to someone “who personally drafted the current budget and argued in the Duma for the right to spend and borrow beyond what the law allows.”
Faridaily wrote, however, that Grigorenko’s departure and the appointment of new deputy prime ministers do not make Mishustin a “lame duck.” The Russian president has long tried to keep Mishustin from becoming too powerful, the outlet wrote, but “the prime minister will certainly have somewhat fewer opportunities to push through his decisions, including on funding and personnel.”
Prokopenko wrote that Grigorenko “had strained relations with virtually every cabinet member.” In her view, his departure from the government “may be part of a deal Mishustin agreed to.”
Another new deputy prime minister is Primorsky Krai Governor Oleg Kozhemyako. He will replace Yuri Trutnev, who has served as deputy prime minister and presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District for 13 years. Kozhemyako is not considered close to Mishustin, Faridaily reported. According to RBC, Trutnev, 70, decided to leave the government on his own. The outlet’s sources said the envoy’s job requires frequent flights to the Far East, and Trutnev now “needs to recover.” RBC’s sources expect him to take a job in the presidential administration as an aide to the president.
The fourth new deputy prime minister is Andrey Nikitin, who has led the Transport Ministry since July 2025. Nikitin replaced Vitaly Savelyev as deputy prime minister. Savelyev became a deputy speaker of the newly elected State Duma. Nikitin will continue to oversee transport in his new post. Dmitry Yadrov, who has headed the Federal Air Transport Agency since September 2023, has been nominated as transport minister. Yadrov’s replacement has not yet been announced. Sources reported as early as September that Nikitin would be named deputy prime minister for transport.
State Duma committees have already endorsed the nominees for deputy prime minister. Commenting on Siluanov’s new post, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said, in part: “The Finance Ministry is doing a fairly effective job handling the issues before it.”
Related reading
- No one expected Mikhail Mishustin to last as Russia’s PM. But after four years of war, he’s become synonymous with the role.
- ‘Just when we thought things settled down’ Kremlin insiders on how Putin might overhaul Russia’s government after his upcoming inauguration
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.