Governing body of the Russian Armed Forces
The
Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
(
Russian
:
Министерство обороны Российской Федерации
;
MOD
) is the governing body of the
Russian Armed Forces
. The
President of Russia
is the
Commander-in-Chief
of the forces and directs the activity of the ministry. The
Minister of Defence
exercises day-to-day administrative and operational authority over the forces.
[2]
The
General Staff of the Armed Forces
executes the instructions and orders of the president and the defence minister.
The ministry is headquartered in the
General Staff building
, built in 1979?1987 on Arbatskaya Square, near
Arbat Street
in Moscow. Other buildings of the ministry are located throughout Moscow. The supreme body responsible for the ministry's management and supervision of the Armed Forces and the centralization of the Armed Forces' command is the
National Defense Management Center
, located in the
Main Building of the Ministry of Defense
, built in the 1940s on
Frunzenskaya Embankment
.
The current Minister of Defence is
Andrey Belousov
(since 14 May 2024).
History
[
edit
]
The U.S.
Library of Congress Country Studies
' volume for Russia said in July 1996 that:
[The] structure [...] does not imply
military subordination to civilian authority
in the Western sense [...]. The historical tradition of military command is considerably different in Russia. The
tsars
were educated as officers, and they regularly wore military uniforms and carried military rank.
Stalin
always wore a military uniform, and he assumed the title
generalissimo
. Even General Secretary
Leonid I. Brezhnev
[...] appointed himself general of the army, and he encouraged portraits of himself in full uniform. By tradition dating back to the tsars, the minister of defense normally is a uniformed officer. The
State Duma
also seats a large number of
deputies
who are active-duty military officers?another tradition that began in the
Russian imperial era
. These combinations of military and civilian authority ensure that military concerns are considered at the highest levels of the Russian government.
[3]
On 18 May 1992,
President of Russia
Boris Yeltsin
appointed
General of the Army
Pavel Grachev
to the post of Minister of Defence. Despite intense criticism of Grachev's management of the
First Chechen War
and the Russian military establishment in general, Yeltsin retained Grachev till 18 June 1996. The new minister of defence became
General of the Army
Igor Rodionov
, who subsequently was substituted by
Marshal of the Russian Federation
Igor Sergeyev
.
In March 2001,
Sergei Ivanov
, previously secretary of the
Security Council of Russia
, was appointed defence minister by President
Vladimir Putin
, becoming Russia's first non-uniformed civilian defence minister.
[4]
Putin called the personnel changes in Russia's security structures coinciding with Ivanov's appointment as defence minister "a step toward demilitarizing public life." Putin also stressed Ivanov's responsibility for overseeing military reform as defence minister. What Putin did not emphasise was Ivanov's long service within the
KGB
and
FSB
and his then rank of General-Lieutenant within the FSB. Such military and security agency associated men are known as
siloviki
.
As of 2002 there were four living
Marshals of the Soviet Union
. Such men are automatically Advisors to the Defence Minister. The Marshals alive at that time were
Viktor Kulikov
,
Vasily Petrov
,
Sergei Sokolov
, a former Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union, and
Dmitri Yazov
. Yazov was listed by the American analysts Scott and Scott in 2002 as a consultant to the (former 10th) Directorate for International Military Cooperation.
[5]
Perhaps the first 'real' non-uniformed Defence Minister was
Anatoly Serdyukov
, appointed in February 2007. Serdyukov was a former Tax Minister with little siloviki or military associations beyond his two years' military service. Serdyukov launched the
military reform in 2008
.
In 2012, he was substituted by
General of the Army
Sergey Shoigu
, who hold at that moment the position of the
Minister of Civil Defence, Emergency Situations and Disaster Relief
.
In May 2024 simultaneous with the
Fifth inauguration of Vladimir Putin
on the 14th,
Sergey Shoigu
was released from duty and
several of his staff were investigated
for corruption or other misdeeds:
Yuri Vasilievich Kuznetsov
,
Timur Ivanov
,
Ruslan Tsalikov
,
[6]
as well as
Vadim Shamarin
,
[7]
Ivan Ivanovich Popov
,
[8]
Vladimir Verteletsky
,
[9]
and
Sukhrab Akhmedov
.
[10]
In May 2024, it came to wider attention through correspondence with the Ministry that the
Russian Military Police
had detained a Ukrainian journalist by the name of
Victoria Roshchyna
. Her August 2023 arrest by
Federal Security Bureau
agents occurred somewhere in the vicinity of
Mariupol
, which then was under the control of the most recent
Special Military Operation
in Ukraine.
[11]
On 17 June 2024 it was noted that four deputy defence ministers,
Nikolay Pankov
,
Ruslan Tsalikov
,
Tatiana Shevtsova
and
Pavel Popov
, had been sacked for
nepotism
that had entered the Ministry. Russian energy minister
Sergey Tsivilyov
's wife,
Anna Tsivileva
, the daughter of a cousin of the President, was appointed deputy defence minister. Her responsibilities include improving social and housing support for military personnel.
Leonid Gornin
, previously first deputy finance minister, was appointed as first deputy defence minister. Other personnel changes included
Oleg Savelyev
and the son of former Prime Minister
Mikhail Fradkov
.
Pavel Fradkov
would oversee the management of property, land and construction relating to the military.
[12]
[13]
Other reports had Tsivileva as Putin's niece.
[14]
Structure
[
edit
]
The Ministry of Defence is managed by a collegium chaired by the Defence Minister and including the deputy Defence Ministers, heads of Main Defence Ministry and General Staff Directorates, and the commanders of the Joint Strategic Commands/Military Districts, the three Services, and three branches, who together form the principal staff and advisory board of the Minister of Defence.
The executive body of the Ministry of Defence is the
General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
, which is headed by the
Chief of the General Staff
. U.S. expert
William Odom
said in 1998 that 'the Soviet General Staff without the MoD is conceivable, but the MoD without the General Staff is not.'
[15]
Russian General Staff officers exercise command authority in their own right. In 1996 the General Staff included fifteen main directorates and an undetermined number of operating agencies. The staff is organized by functions, with each directorate and operating agency overseeing a functional area, generally indicated by the organization's title.
Military Thought
is the military-theoretical journal of the Ministry of Defence, and
Krasnaya Zvezda
is its daily newspaper.
Structure in 2024
[
edit
]
Senior staff in 2024 included:
[16]
- Minister of Defence
- First Deputy Minister(s) of Defence
- Deputy Minister(s) of Defence
Structure in 2021
[
edit
]
Senior staff in 2021 included:
[16]
- Minister of Defence
- First Deputy Minister(s) of Defence
- Deputy Minister(s) of Defence
Organization in 2012
[
edit
]
Entities directly subordinated to the Minister of Defence in August 2012 included:
[16]
- MOD Press Service and Information Directorate
- MOD Physical Training Directorate
- MOD Financial Auditing Inspectorate
- MOD
Main Military Medical Directorate
- MOD State Order Placement Department
- MOD Property Relations Department
- Expert Center of the MOD Staff
- MOD Administration Directorate
- MOD State Defence Order Facilitation Department
- MOD Department of the State Customer for Capital Construction
- MOD State Architectural-Construction Oversight Department
- MOD Sanatoria-resort Support Department
- MOD Housekeeping Directorate
- MOD State Review/Study Group
- MOD Educational Department
- MOD Legal Department
- MOD Organizational-inspection Department
- MOD Personnel Inspectorate
- MOD Military Inspectorate
- MOD State Technical Oversight Directorate
- MOD Aviation Flight Safety Service
- MOD Nuclear and Radiation Safety Oversight Directorate
- MOD Autotransport Directorate
- MOD Staff Protocol Department
- MOD Armed Force Weapons Turnover Oversight Service
- MOD
Main Military Police Directorate
The
Office of Inspectors General
of the Ministry of Defence was established in 2008, consisting of around thirty retired senior officers. The main task of the office is "to promote the organization of combat and operational training of troops, the construction and further development of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the development of the theory and history of military art, and the education of personnel."
[17]
It is the successor to the
Soviet Armed Forces
's
Group of Inspectors General
, which was dissolved in 1992.
[17]
Outline structure 2004
[
edit
]
An outline structure of the Ministry of Defence includes the groupings below, but this structure was in transition when it was recorded in 2004, with several deputy minister posts being abolished:
[18]
- Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation
- Federal Service for the Defence Order
- Federal Service for Technical and Export Control
- Federal Special Construction Agency of the MOD
- 11th Directorate of the MOD (function unclear)
- 12th Main Directorate of the MOD
(nuclear weapons)
- 16th Directorate of the MOD (function unclear)
- Hydrometrological Service of the Armed Forces
- Military Inspectorate
- Directorate of Information and Public Relations
- 1st Separate Brigade of Protection of the MOD
- Archives of the Armed Forces (see also
Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defence
)
- State Corporation for Air Traffic Control
- Central Theater of the Russian Army
- All-Russian Centre for Retraining Officers
- General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
- First Deputy Minister of Defence
- Main Directorate for Combat Training of the Armed Forces
- Directorate of Force Management and Security of Military Service
|
- Army General Nikolay Pankov, State Secretary ? Deputy Min. of Defence
[19]
- Liaison with Political Power Institutions
- [Main] Directorate for Indoctrination [Political Work, Morale]
- [Main] Directorate for International Military Cooperation
- Directorate for Military Education of the Ministry of Defence
- Directorate of Foreign Relations
- Directorate of Force Management & Security of Military Service
- Directorate of Ecology & Special Means of Protection Min Def RF
- Press Service of the Ministry of Defence
- Flight Safety Service of Aviation of the Armed Forces RF
- Deputy Minister of Defence ?
Chief of Rear of the Armed Forces
- Military medical, trade, transportation, food, clothing, etc.
- Deputy Minister of Defence ? Chief of Armaments of the Armed Forces
- Deputy Minister of Defence ? Chief of Construction and Billeting Service
- Main Military Construction Directorate
- Main Quarters Exploitation Directorate
- other Directorates, departments etc.
- Lyubov Kudelina
, Deputy Minister of Defence for Financial-Economic Work
- Financial-Economic Section of the MOD
- Directorate of Military-Economic Analysis and Expertise
- Financial Inspectorate of the MOD
- Federation of Trade Unions for Civilian Workers of the Armed Forces
- Deputy Minister of Defence ? Chief of the Main Department of Cadres [personnel]
- military schools, military academies, etc.
|
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
RF MOS website www.mil.ru accessed 9 August 2012.
- ^
Федеральный закон от 31 мая 1996 г. № 61-ФЗ ≪Об обороне≫
Archived
2018-08-19 at the
Wayback Machine
See Article 13, §§ 1, 2.
- ^
Library of Congress Country Studies
Russia,
Command Structure
Archived
2017-09-21 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Peter Finn,
Russian Leader Expands Powers of a Possible Successor
Archived
2017-10-18 at the
Wayback Machine
,
Washington Post
, 16 February 2007.
- ^
Harriet F. Scott and William Scott, Russian Military Directory 2002, p. 341, citing DS2002-0802.
- ^
"Putin begins defense ministry purge amid nuclear secrets leak rumor"
. 14 May 2024.
- ^
"Kremlin denies they are purging military generals as another is arrested | DW News"
. 23 May 2024.
- ^
"Deputy Russian military chief of staff jailed for bribery in latest arrest of high defense official"
. 23 May 2024.
- ^
"2 more Russian officials arrested in widening military corruption probe"
.
- ^
"Russia fires general who lined up troops ahead of deadly HIMARS strike"
. 24 May 2024.
- ^
"Russian Defense Ministry Confirms Detention of Missing Ukrainian Journalist"
. 28 May 2024.
- ^
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-clears-out-deputy-defence-ministers-appoints-his-relative-2024-06-17/
.
- ^
"Putin makes cousin's daughter deputy defence minister"
.
- ^
"Putin sacks four Russian deputy defence ministers, appoints his niece"
.
- ^
William Eldridge Odom
, 'The Collapse of the Soviet Military,' Yale University Press, 1998,
ISBN
0-300-08271-1
, p. 27.
- ^
a
b
c
RF MOD website www.mil.ru accessed 18 August 2019.
- ^
a
b
Misyura, Vyacheslav (12 February 2018).
"Управлению генеральных инспекторов Минобороны России ? 60 лет!"
(in Russian). Russian Ministry of Defence
. Retrieved
8 June
2021
.
- ^
H.F. Scott & William F. Scott, Russian Military Directory 2004, pp. 61?82, 97?116.
- ^
State Secretary, Deputy Minister of Defence
Archived
2008-04-11 at the
Wayback Machine
, Russian Ministry of Defence, accessed May 2008.
External links
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Leadership
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Services
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Independent
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Departments in the
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Equipment
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Military academy
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International
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National
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