Since the invasion of Ukraine began, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov have been central figures in the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Shoigou and Gerasimov have been the faces of the war. Both are very close to Putin. The two were also by Putin's side during a televised announcement on February 28 about putting Russia's nuclear forces on high alert.
It is not surprising that the Kremlin decided to put Shoigu and Gerasimov in the spotlight. In Putin's eyes, they were the architects of the successful 2014 annexation of Crimea campaign, Russia's military strategy in Syria as well as support for pro-Russian rebels in the Donbas region.
The duo is also considered one of Putin's most loyal followers. Interestingly, the two were appointed within weeks of each other to their respective posts in 2012.
It was said that Shoigu would remain in office as long as Gerasimov remained chief of staff and vice versa. However, the two people who are at the forefront of executing Russia's presidential will in Ukraine have very different backgrounds and profiles.
Shoigu began his political career in the late Soviet era. He became Minister of Defense in 2012, despite his lack of military experience. This is an unusual oddity under Putin, who wants to keep senior officers out of this position. However, Shoigu also has no experience of the secret service, which is much less common among those close to Putin.
His outstanding quality was that he was "a servant of the tsar and father to the army", wrote the Russian daily Moscow Times, citing Mikhail Lermontov's famous poem "Borodino" in praise of the heroism of the Russian army.
Sergei Konvis, a politician from the Siberian region of Tuva, where Shoigu is from, described him less lyrically as a "perfect chameleon," capable of changing himself at will to suit the pleasures of his leaders. So, under Yeltsin, he became Minister of Emergency Situations.
By the turn of the 21st century, the ministry had become a true state within a state, with more than 350,000 people and even special police forces ready to be deployed to fight fires on Russian soil.
He was a very active minister, who never failed to visit the scene of tragedy, which earned him immense popularity – and the presumption that he would be Yeltsin's successor.
However, it was Putin who took power in 2002. Shoigu did not seem offended and immediately put himself at the service of the Kremlin's new strongman. He mainly heads the United Russia party. Shoigu has also invited Putin several times to his home in Tuva, where he hosts famous fishing parties. However, he wasn't just an outstanding retainer.
According to "The Guardian", Shoigu is described as being responsible for the massive modernization of the Russian army. As defense minister, Shoigu also oversaw Russia's feared military intelligence service, or GRU, which allegedly stepped up assassination operations in Europe in the 2010s, including the 2018 attempted poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.
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While Gerasimov, who was born in 1955 in Kazan, one of Russia's most populous cities, originally served in the armored divisions of the Red Army throughout the former Soviet Union. Gerasimov was also one of the commanders of the army of the North Caucasus during the second Chechen war (1999-2009).
The BBC reported in 2012 that renowned Russian journalist and government critic Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated in 2006, described her as an example of "a man who knew how to keep his honor as an officer" during the war.
Gerasimov, described by Shoigu as "a military man from head to toe", led operations in Ukraine in 2014, in Syria and now, once again, in Ukraine. His international fame, however, was based on a misunderstanding.
He is said to be the inventor of Russian “hybrid warfare,” which combines the use of conventional weapons with non-military methods such as disinformation or cyberattacks to prepare a place for soldiers. There is even a “Grasimov doctrine” named for this military approach.
But the term's inventor, Mark Galeotti, a British expert on Russian military matters, has repeatedly tried to improve the record. He stressed that there was no such official doctrine in Russia and that Gerasimov was not a war theorist.
The misunderstanding stems from a speech Gerasimov gave in 2013, in which he said “the border between war and peace is becoming increasingly blurred” and that “non-military means of achieving strategic goals are becoming increasingly important”.