The main task of the head of the Russian armed forces, rich in an exemplary military career, is to resume the Russian advance on Ukrainian territory.
Musical chairs from Moscow. On Wednesday, Russia’s defense minister announced that he had once again replaced the commander-in-chief of its offensive in Ukraine by appointing General Valeri Guerassimov, chief of the defense staff, to the post.
Three months later, he thus took the place of Sergueï Surovikine, considered implacable, who had been appointed to restore the situation of the Russian army, which was suffering significant setbacks, including the loss of Kherson. The man nicknamed “General Armageddon” was demoted to Guerassimov’s deputy.
“Increasing the command level of special operations (in Ukraine) is associated with an expansion in the scope of the missions to be carried out, with the need for closer cooperation between the components of the armed forces,” the ministry justified.
Rich military career
The Western public has known Valéri Guerassimov since the first days of the February 2022 Ukrainian invasion. With a calm face and a military uniform strewn with medals, he stood opposite Vladimir Putin with Minister of the Armies Sergei Shoigu on February 27 as the Russian president issued his war order. The picture has since become famous for the dubious expressions of the two interlocutors.
The Kazan native, now 67, is at the forefront of an impressive career and is the fruit of a Soviet-style meritocracy. Coming from a humble background in Tatarstan, he graduated from the main military schools in the USSR, then in Russia, including the Military Academy of the Armed Forces General Staff in 1997.
Very quickly, Guerasimov finds himself at the front in the second Chechen war, leading the 58th Army. During this conflict, he gained some notoriety on the fringes of the “Budanov Affair,” named after a Russian soldier guilty of manhandling and murdering a young Chechen girl he had arrested and convicted.
In 2012 he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and Deputy Minister of Defense by Vladimir Putin himself.
“The balance of power, the real”
On the front lines, Guerassimov’s military career continued in Syria, but also in Crimea and Donbass in 2014, where he was already involved in the capture of those two Ukrainian territories. An arrest warrant was therefore issued against him by the EU and the Ukrainian security service.
During this period, the Russian Chief of General Staff also gained international fame, particularly through his tough encounters with his counterparts.
General Pierre de Villiers, himself Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces from 2014 to 2017, tells BFMTV about his memories of meetings with Valéri Guerassimov, his counterpart at the time.
“What struck me was that he only recognized one thing, the balance of power. Not the element of language, not the outburst of voice, the balance of power, the real thing,” he recalls.
During the course of the meetings, General De Villiers was also able to discern a soldier’s evasion of fallacious arguments to justify his presence in Ukraine. “He kept talking to me about NATO, about the West’s threat to Russia with an aggressiveness that I didn’t admit,” he adds.
The “Guerasimov Doctrine”
Although authorship is disputed, Valery Guerasimov is also credited with being the father of what the Foundation for Strategic Research calls “New Generation Warfare” or simply “Guerasimov Doctrine”.
In fact, this hybrid war consists of combining the military aspect with other methods, including disinformation, even in peacetime. This misinformation went through the official Kremlin channels, some of which, like RT or Sputnik, were broadcast in France and Europe before being banned in the face of the Ukraine conflict. A strategy that is being put into practice above all in Africa via the Wagner Group.
For the remainder of the war, Guerassimov will also have to contend with the paramilitary group led by Sulphurous Evgueni Prigojine, which is becoming increasingly important in the Russian army and which even claims to be trapping in eastern Ukraine, including the town of Soledar.