Putin’s defence chief ‘seen for first time’ since missing Wagner boss Prigozhin demanded he be ousted in armed rebellion

RUSSIA’s defiant defence minister Sergei Shoigu today made clear he was not going to be ousted easily as he got back to work meeting war commanders.  He was facing down a demand from coup-plotting Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner mercenary army, that his head should roll along with chief of the army Gen Valery Gerasimov.  APSergei Shoigu refused to hide away after calls for him to be ousted[/caption] AFPUndated footage of the defence minister was released by Russia early today[/caption] Prigozhin – a long-time Putin associate – said the pair should take the blame for the incompetence of Russia’s war campaign in Ukraine.  Yet Shoigu, 68, who was out of sight on Sunday, was seen in footage released by his ministry early today dressed in military fatigues meeting Russia’s Western group of troops and receiving a report from Colonel-General Yevgeny Nikiforov. It was initially not possible to ascertain when the visit took place.  One picture shows the time on Shoigu’s watch as being shortly before one o’clock.  However, it remains unclear if his visit to the war command post was earlier today or yesterday – or if older footage was suddenly released to show him in charge.  Meanwhile, Prigozhin, 62,  has not been spotted since agreeing a deal to turn back his coup forces marching on Moscow.  He was due to travel into exile in authoritarian Belarus as part of the quick-fix pact with Putin, but there is no sign he has done so.  Rumours are swirling in Moscow that Putin, 70, has lined up Tula governor and ex-deputy defence minister Alexei Dyumin, 50, to be the next defence minister, replacing Shoigu.  He is a trusted former Putin bodyguard who once saved the Kremlin leader from attack by a vicious brown bear.  He is rumoured to have played a role in the pact which stopped the coup march into Moscow on Saturday.  And he is believed to be involved in secret funding channels used by the Kremlin elite.  A defiant Shoigu – fighting for his job – “listened to a  report from the commander of the Western group, Col-Gen Nikiforov, on the current situation at the front” and the “nature of enemy actions”. Shoigu was filmed both at a meeting with top brass and being shown the battle positions from the air.  Putin has not fired any of his top team – many now in their late sixties or early seventies – during the war.  Gerasmov, 67, also remains in post so far despite Prigozhin’s demands for him to be fired and even prosecuted.  Planes linked to Putin and his presidential entourage returned to Moscow amid suggestions that he had sat out Saturday’s dramatic events at his palace in Valdai – north of Moscow – which he shares with secret lover Alina Kabaeva, 40, and their undisclosed children.  Footage emerged today of the Russian military machine’s bombing of a road in Voronezh region as it sought to stop the coup march.  Estimates suggest Putin suffered grievous losses of up to 39 air crew blasted out of the sky by Wagner forces on Saturday.  He lost six helicopters and an Il-22 commander and control plane as Russians killed Russians amid their war with Ukraine.  Dyumin has been long rumoured for promotion and some analysts see him as Putin’s chosen heir.  They had assumed he would be catapulted into the role of prime minister at the point when Putin was ready to quit due to political problems or ill health.  Pro-war commentators were overnight talking up the prospect of Dyumin being appointed defence minister.  Putin has several times travelled to Tula to meet Dyumin during the war.  The city is a key site for arms plants cruel to the war effort.  Dyumin earlier told how he stared at the bear that came to attack Putin in a presidential mountain retreat.  “Naturally, I was armed, the president was upstairs,” said the governor, seen as a potential action man president if and when Putin is forced to quit.  “So the bear and I looked into each other’s eyes, and he stepped back a little. “I opened the door and emptied the entire cartridge of my pistol under his feet.” The beast retreated.  “I felt pity for the bear,” said Dyumin. Putin later praised him for not killing the beast.