General of the Army Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov (born 8 September 1955) is a Russian military officer who has been the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and first deputy minister of defense since 2012. His previous commands included three military districts and a combined arms army.
Gerasimov was born in Kazan and was commissioned in the Soviet Army after graduating from the Kazan Higher Tank Command School in 1977. He later also attended the Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy and the Russian General Staff Academy. Gerasimov is a combat veteran of the Second Chechen War, during which he was chief of staff and then commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army. He later commanded the Leningrad, Moscow, and Central Military Districts.
He was appointed as Chief of the General Staff by President Vladimir Putin on 9 November 2012, replacing Nikolai Makarov. After the seizure of Crimea in 2014 and the Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war, Gerasimov became increasingly influential in the Russian security establishment. 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 the minister of defense. Gerasimov has been described as a loyal follower of Putin. He is reportedly the one who conceived the Gerasimov doctrine.
On 11 January 2023, he was appointed as the commander of the Joint Group of Forces in the Russo-Ukrainian war, replacing Sergey Surovikin. In 2024, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Gerasimov on charges of alleged war crimes for his role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Early life 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 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.
Rise to field army command 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. 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. 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. After being promoted to chief of staff of the division, Gerasimov took command of the 144th Guards in 1993, and supervised its withdrawal to Russia in August 1994. Colonel Gerasimov commanded the division until 1995.
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, responsible for the logistics and operational planning of the 58th Army. Major General Gerasimov was in a convoy that got ambushed near the village of Bamut, and he fought the attackers, rifle in hand, until reinforcements arrived. When Shamanov left to begin his political career, Gerasimov acted as army commander from late 2000, and was confirmed in this position in February 2001. The 58th Army under Lieutenant General Gerasimov secured the borders of Ingushetia to stop militants from Chechnya and Georgia. In September 2002 he personally led an operation against Ruslan Gelayev's band of fighters that crossed the border from Georgia into Russia's Chechnya and Ingushetia. The operation resulted in the recapture of the village of Galashki and the rout of the group. His involvement in the arrest of Yury Budanov led to praise from journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
Senior postings
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.
During his tenure, Gerasimov significantly reduced crime and desertion within the Leningrad Military District, and had a good reputation among human rights activists, who noted that he treated subordinates with respect and was willing to speak with representatives of civil society. He was transferred to command the Moscow Military District, assuming command on 10 February 2009. He was also known to support the Serdyukov-Makarov reforms to the military. In November 2010 he was nominated as deputy chief of the General Staff, appointed on 23 December 2010. Oleg Salyukov also held that position along with Gerasimov, and they served under Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov.
He commanded the annual Victory Day Parade on Red Square four times from 2009 to 2012. On 28 April 2012, Gerasimov was appointed commander of the Central Military District, one of the new military districts created two years earlier as part of the military reform.
Chief of the General Staff
Gerasimov became the longest-serving Chief of the General Staff in Russia's history since the 1917 Russian Revolution. Unlike many of Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu's other appointments, in which he stressed personal relationships, he made no reference of any previous connection to Gerasimov, so his choice has been interpreted as being due to Gerasimov's military experience. 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 the minister of defense. Gerasimov has been described as a loyal follower of Putin.
On 26 February 2013 Gerasimov published an article called "The Value of Science is Foresight" in the military journal Voyenno-promyshlennyy Kur'yer on the basis of which, 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 that called it the "Gerasimov doctrine," Mark Galeotti, claimed that his work was misunderstood, and that it was not Russian doctrine, but a Russian perspective of Western foreign policy. (English translation) In 2017, Gerasimov explained his doctrine to the Financial Times.
Staff appointment up to full-scale war (2012–2020) Gerasimov was appointed Chief of the General Staff following the dismissal of Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on 6 November. After the dismissal of Serdyukov as defense minister, his successor Sergey Shoigu nominated Gerasimov to be the next Chief of the General Staff, replacing Nikolai Makarov. Putin approved Gerasimov's nomination on 9 November. Makarov was seen as close to Serduykov and was seen by commentators as likely to be replaced by the new defense minister. It has been reported that Makarov resigned, but he was formally dismissed by Putin. Gerasimov was promoted to the four-star rank of general of the army.
In December 2012 Gerasimov said that the Russian military will not become an all-volunteer force, with conscription to continue, and that some of the current reforms will be adjusted. Among the adjustments were the recreation of some divisions in the Ground Forces, which had all been turned into brigades, though many of the new divisions were smaller than a normal division. In March 2013, Gerasimov announced the founding of the Special Operations Forces Command (KSSO), which has been compared to the U.S. Delta Force. After discussions in the Security Council of Russia in the summer of 2013, a plan was announced by Gerasimov and the Ministry of Defense for the development of the Russian Armed Forces through 2020. The delivery of new equipment to over 400 military units was due to begin in 2016. In June 2014, Nikolai Bogdanovsky was appointed as the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff, likely on Gerasimov's recommendation, after he had been serving as commander of the Central Military District for the same reason.
Gerasimov is believed to not have been present at a meeting Putin held with senior officials on 22–23 February 2014, where he made the decision to intervene in Crimea, though his superior, Shoigu, was there. Russia launched large-scale military drills in early March 2014 near the Ukrainian border, which the General Staff and Gerasimov were likely involved in the planning and execution of. Both KSSO and spetsnaz GRU units, under the command of the General Staff, had a prominent role in the February and March 2014 seizure of Crimea, and the support provided to the pro-Russian separatists during the war in Donbass. In May 2014, Gerasimov said that "extremist organizations" had a decisive role in the seizure of power in Ukraine and were fighting in the Donbass. In December 2014, Gerasimov said that the Donbass war is against Russia's interests and the shared history of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples. He also said that Russia was not a party to the conflict. According to the Security Service of Ukraine, Gerasimov was the general commander during the decisive strategic victory in the Battle of Ilovaisk in 2014, where over 459 Ukrainian military personnel were killed and another 478 were injured. Ukrainian intelligence also claimed that from early 2015, Sergey Istrakov, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff under Gerasimov, was responsible for overseeing Russian military involvement in Donbass.