Valery Gerasimov

Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov (Валерий Васильевич Герасимов; born 8 September 1955) is a Russian army general serving as the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and First Deputy Minister of Defence.

Gerasimov was born in a working-class family in Kazan, Tatar ASSR on 8 September 1955.

Interested in the army from a young age, Gerasimov grew up on the stories of his veteran uncle, a former tank company commander, and avidly read the books of Konstantin Simonov.

After fourth grade Gerasimov's father sent his documents for admission to the Kazan Suvorov Military School, but that year the military school programs were reduced to two years' duration.

Nonetheless, Gerasimov entered the military school as soon as he was able to four years later in 1971.

Graduating from the Suvorov military school in 1973 with a gold medal, Gerasimov was admitted to the Kazan Higher Tank Command School for officer training.

Having graduated from the four-year school with honors in 1977, he began his service in Poland as a tank platoon commander in the 80th Tank Regiment of the 90th Guards Tank Division of the Northern Group of Forces.

Gerasimov rose to tank company commander and tank battalion chief of staff before being transferred to the 5th Combined Arms Army of the Far Eastern Military District in 1982.

Gerasimov was admitted to the Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy in 1984 for advanced officer training.

Graduating with honors in 1987, he was posted to the Baltic Military District, serving as chief of staff of and then commanding the 228th Tank Regiment of the 144th Guards Motor Rifle Division.

Having demonstrated his command abilities in this, Gerasimov was selected to attend the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia in 1995.

Graduating with honors in 1997, he was appointed first deputy commander of the 1st Guards Tank Army and then sent to take the same position with the 58th Combined Arms Army in 1998.

The title of Gerasimov's position was changed to army chief of staff and he served in this position while Vladimir Shamanov was army commander.

Gerasimov took part in the Second Chechen War in this post, and when Shamanov left to begin his political career acted as army commander from late 2000.

He was confirmed in this position in February 2001 and remained in command until March 2003.

His involvement in the arrest of Yury Budanov led to praise from journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Gerasimov was promoted to chief of staff of the Far Eastern Military District in March 2003, and was appointed chief of the Main Combat Training and Service Directorate of the General Staff in April 2005.

In 2006 he was sent back to the North Caucasus as chief of staff of the North Caucasus Military District, and in December 2006 appointed commander of the Leningrad Military District, a significant promotion.

He commanded the annual Victory Day Parade on Red Square four times from 2009 to 2012.

Gerasimov was alleged to have conceived the "Gerasimov doctrine" – combining military, technological, information, diplomatic, economic, cultural and other tactics for the purpose of achieving strategic goals.

The author of the original paper, Mark Galeotti, claimed it was a speech which, due to translation errors, was misinterpreted in the American press as a belligerent, rather than defensive strategic proposal.

Gerasimov was transferred to command the Moscow Military District in 2009 and on 23 December 2010 appointed deputy chief of the General Staff.

He was appointed by president Vladimir Putin on 9 November 2012 replacing Nikolay Yegorovich Makarov, and currently serves as the commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine.

He is considered one of the most powerful men in Russia, and one of three people to hold access to Russia's nuclear weapons, alongside Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

He briefly commanded the Central Military District between April and November 2012.

After the dismissal of Anatoly Serdyukov as defense minister, his successor Sergei Shoigu nominated Gerasimov to be the next Chief of the General Staff, replacing Nikolay Makarov.

Putin approved Gerasimov's nomination on 9 November.

Gerasimov was appointed Chief of the General Staff following the dismissal of Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on 6 November 2012.

The previous Chief of General Staff, Army General Nikolay Makarov, was seen as close to Serduykov and was seen by commentators as likely to be replaced by new Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

It has been reported that Makarov resigned, but he was formally dismissed by President Vladimir Putin.

Other changes were the dismissal of Alexander Sukhorukov from the position of First Deputy Defence Minister and his replacement by Colonel General Arkady Bakhin, formerly commander of the Western Military District.

Aerospace Defence Forces commander Colonel General Oleg Ostapenko was also promoted to Deputy Defence Minister.

After being promoted to chief of staff of the division, Gerasimov took command of the 144th Guards, supervising its withdrawal to Russia.

He was promoted to the highest rank in the Russian Army, General of the Army, as of 2014.

According to the Security Service of Ukraine, Gerasimov was the general commander of all elements of Russian forces and the pro-Russian insurgents during their decisive strategic victory in the Battle of Ilovaisk in 2014, where over 459 Ukrainian military personnel were killed and another 478 were injured.

On 15 September 2016, he and Turkish chief of staff General Hulusi Akar conducted a meeting on the future of Syria in the Ankara headquarters of the Turkish Armed Forces.

He served there as chief of staff of a tank battalion of the 185th Tank Regiment of the 29th Motor Rifle Division, and was promoted to command the tank battalion of the 231st Motor Rifle Regiment of the 40th Motor Rifle Division.

As reported in her book on Gerasimov regarding his 2019 involvement with Syria, Anna Borshchevskaya wrote:"By March 2019, Valeriy Gerasimov announced that Moscow had been pursuing a strategy of 'limited action' in Syria, and one that it hopes will guide future military action. By that point it was a description of actions that had already taken place in the previous years, and more to the point, this strategy reflected a return to Soviet and tsarist methods of 'limited wars''."

On 9 December 2021, Gerasimov issued a warning to the Ukrainian government against attempting to settle the war in Donbas using force.

Gerasimov said that "information about Russia's alleged impending invasion of Ukraine is a lie."