Egypt’s interim cabinet resigned on Monday amid widespread popular dissatisfaction over the country’s ongoing economic woes, with analysts widely reading the development as preparation for Egyptian army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to formally announce a Presidential run. The broadly popular military official is expected to declare his candidacy shortly, and the optics of doing so against the backdrop of public unrest would – per the Washington Post – “not have looked good.” Sisi is expected to overwhelmingly win the upcoming election.

The 59-year-old career infantry officer, who has been defense minister since Morsi named him to the Cabinet post in August 2012, has already secured the support of Egypt’s top military body, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, to seek the presidency.

Military and security officials said the British- and U.S.-trained el-Sissi has been working with a team of advisers on a program of action that he intends to announce when he declares his candidacy. Making the announcement against a backdrop of rising popular anger and harsh media criticism of el-Beblawi would not have looked good for el-Sissi.

The Post noted that he has been “increasingly acting in a presidential fashion,” specifically citing a recent trip to Moscow to boost defense ties between Cairo and the Kremlin. The visit was read as evidence of an Egyptian pivot toward Russia, in the aftermath of repeated diplomatic and financial snubs by the Obama administration toward Egypt’s army-led government. Sisi himself had warned, in a Washington Post interview published last August, that Washington’s moves to distance itself from Cairo risked doing lasting harm to bilateral ties, and telling Americans “you turned your back on the Egyptians, and they won’t forget that” and worrying “now you want to continue turning your backs on Egyptians.”

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