The most interesting bit of Umerov’s appointment is that he was not a member of the Ze team from the beginning, like so many others.
In fact, he began his tenure as an MP of the opposition Holos party, which was often highly critical of Ze’s Servant of the People. 6/
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President
@ZelenskyyUa
announced 🇺🇦 Minister of Defense
@oleksiireznikov
will be replaced by current head of the State Property Fund
@rustem_umerov
.
Quick thread on why change now and why Umerov.
Spoiler: I think this is a very sensible move. 1/
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Reznikov had been Zelenskyy’s minister of defense for almost two years, a very solid tenure in the Ze cabinet, who is known to chop and change.
Ze clearly trusted Reznikov as a manager of one of UKR’s most important ministries. 2/
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Reznikov was well-liked in the West, though allegations of corruption and graft scandals plagued the ministry + some of his deputies. He was key to Ramstein Formula success.
Importantly, most of the allegations pertained to locally-procured aid, NOT Western weapons or funds. 3/
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Even so, murmurs of corruption likely became untenable for Ze to keep Reznikov as minister, though there’s little evidence Reznikov had been involved directly.
His time simply had come. 4/
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Umerov will be confirmed by the UKR parliament in short order and become minister. Of Crimean Tatar origin, he has some profile in Washington and Europe and to me is a strong choice. 5/
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When Holos split in 2021, Umerov moved closer to the SoP faction and was even part of the UKR negotiating team that met with RU reps in March 2022. There were reports that he may have been poisoned there, along w/ RU oligarch Roman Abramovich. 7/
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In Sept 2022, Ze named Umerov head of the State Property Fund, taking over from the corrupt Dmytro Sennychenko.
He cleaned up the govt privatization push and had some success moving forward with large-scale privatization, though small-scale bid-rigging remains a challenge. 8/
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Umerov’s capable work managing SPF helped win Zelenskyy’s trust and his squeaky clean profile in the West made him a strong candidate for the MinDef job.
While he lacks major defense/security experience, so too did Reznikov when he took the job. 9/
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Basically, Reznikov had a good run, but his struggles at curbing petty corruption were cause for concern.
Umerov is reform-minded and a capable manager. He’ll be well-received in the West, though he’ll have to build relationships with top defense officials from scratch 10/10.
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Update: many speculate Zelenskyy will name Reznikov 🇺🇦 ambassador to the UK in short order, taking up the post left vacant by Vadym Prystaiko’s dismissal in July.
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