On November 22, 2017, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, 51-year-old Colonel General Sergei Surovikin was appointed the new Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces (VKS). Previously, he led the grouping of Russian troops in Syria, though not for long: according to some sources, since March of this year, according to others, since June. Prior to that, he served as commander of the troops of the Eastern Military District for several years. The career of this military man developed rapidly and noisily.
The upcoming appointment of Surovikin as Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces became known back in September, when Colonel General Viktor Bondarev was announced to leave this post. His departure looks strange: the age limit for military service for a colonel-general is 65 years old, and Bondarev will turn only 58 years old on December 7, so he could have served for another seven years. And he spent only two years as commander-in-chief of the new branch of the Armed Forces created in 2015.
Even more questions are raised by the appointment of a combined-arms general at the head of a purely "air" branch of the Armed Forces, who has never had anything to do with military aviation, space forces or air defense and missile defense forces, which are also part of the Aerospace Forces. In military aviation, combined arms officers, tankers, and representatives of the Ground Forces in general are traditionally called "boots", it just so happened. It also happened that only an aviation general should command military aviation, but not a "general in boots" at all, because, without knowing the specifics of aviation, it is simply unrealistic to understand a huge number of things.
From the late 1930s, Soviet military aviation was headed by "non-core" specialists, but this was the dawn of its creation: that is, there were already pilots, but they had not yet grown into strategic-level commanders. But since 1939, only pilots commanded military aviation. True, there was a case when, in 1987, after Mathias Rust’s plane landed near the Kremlin, General of the Army Ivan Tretyak, who had never had anything to do with aviation before, was appointed commander-in-chief of the air defense forces (which included air defense aviation - more than 1200 fighters), a graduate machine-gun school and an infantryman to the bone. From many lips I heard the story of how he came to inspect the airfield in the Rostov region and, climbing to the control tower, looked from above the runway, the centralized filling station, taxiing and gave something like: "Oh, what a wonderful tankodrome here would be!" or "Well, how many tanks can be placed here!"
First of all, General of the Army Tretiak changed the shoes of the aviation entrusted to him into boots, and when inspecting the air regiments, he did not check the condition of the aircraft, but went around the airfield around the perimeter and looked at whether the fence posts were even, what was the distance between the rows of barbed wire and whether the well hatches were painted correctly. That was his inspection. And between flights, the pilots of the air defense regiments planted trees, painted and rearranged curbs, cleaned forest plantations near the airfield, and the commander-in-chief was not at all interested in organizing flights.
Government publications hastened to report that General Surovikin led the Russian group in Syria, having gained invaluable experience in the combined use of forces there. He also has the Military Academy of the General Staff behind him, from which he graduated with honors. But he was in Syria for three months. They also write about his rich combat experience, but what exactly: in organizing flight training for pilots of various types of aviation or in providing maintenance for aviation equipment? Probably, he can designate a combat mission by showing on the map exactly where the aircraft needs to strike. But can a combined-arms general plan the forces and means to accomplish the assigned task? Of course not - for this it is necessary to know at least the characteristics of aviation equipment and the means of destruction used at a professional level.
The argument regarding General Surovikin's successful graduation from the General Staff Academy is completely weak: all commanders in chief and commanders of the Air Force were trained in this academy. And they also studied there strategic issues and the organization of interaction of all types and branches of the troops. However, for some reason, aviation generals are not appointed commanders-in-chief of the Ground Forces, they are not placed at the head of military districts or commanders of combined arms and tank formations.
In addition, it was during the command of Surovikin that the Russian group (as well as mercenaries from PMCs) in Syria suffered the most significant losses, up to a general and several colonels. It is also believed that during the fighting in Deir ez-Zor, Surovikin failed the task of crossing the Euphrates River, the purpose of which was to block the advance of the Kurds to the oil fields. Therefore, they say, the Kurds got the largest oil fields - 75 percent of all Syrian oil. Nevertheless, it was General Surovikin who turned out to be the only one of all the commanders of the Russian group, who was constantly shown by the central television channels. Assuring that it was during his command that the Syrian government forces achieved maximum success on the battlefields.
First blood
The official biography of the new Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces is interesting because it contains too many gaps and mysteries. For example, it says that in 1987 he graduated from the Omsk Higher Combined Arms Command School with a gold medal, but where he served until 1991, not a word about this. Other sources report that he fought in Afghanistan, but about the chronological scope of this service and in what particular part - this is silent. Although in 1989 he was already serving in the Moscow region, in the "court" 2nd guards Taman motorized rifle division, so if he was in Afghanistan, then no more than a year. Having received during this time the Order of the Red Star and the medal "For Courage": a lot for a freshly minted platoon lieutenant.
True, there is neither the Red Star nor the medal "For Courage" on the dress uniform, he also does not wear the straps of these awards, which is also strange. With slats and orders, the general is generally confused. According to the information of the RIA Novosti agency, published in 2011, Sergei Surovikin was awarded three Orders of Courage, the Order of Military Merit, medals of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, I and II degrees with the image of swords, the Order of the Red Star, medals "For Courage", "For Military Merit", etc. However, in the modern official photograph from the website of the Ministry of Defense, for some reason, he has only one of the three Orders of Courage, the Order of Military Merit, and for some reason only one of his military medals - " For military merit." In other pictures, he either has two bars of the Order of Courage, or all three, and all this refers to the same period of time. Orders, of course, tend to accumulate, but for them to decrease ... It is strange not to wear at least the bar of Soviet military awards. And in general, the procedure for wearing awards and award bars is strictly regulated: nothing superfluous, but without any reduction, wear everything that you received.
Just four years after graduating from college, in August 1991, Sergei Surovikin was already a captain and battalion commander. More precisely, an acting battalion commander, but in four years to grow from a lieutenant to a whole battalion commander in the "court" Taman division is not just fast, but excessively accelerated. About such impetuous in the army they usually say "he is being led", meaning "furry paw". But the "paw" turned out to be very useful when, during the GKChP, it was the battalion he commanded that had the dubious honor of shedding the blood of three civilians: Vladimir Usov, Dmitry Komar and Ilya Krichevsky.
According to one of the active participants in the events, Sergei Bratchikov, it was the battalion commander who took out a pistol and shot the first person who came across in the forehead. True, no one could prove anything later: neither the bullet was found, nor the weapon from which they fired, and the battalion commander's service pistol turned out to be clean. Maybe everything was completely different, but then three army divisions, a division of internal troops, KGB units were brought into Moscow, and only Surovikin's battalion shed the blood of civilians. Captain Surovikin spent several months in Matrosskaya Tishina, but in December 1991 he was released and even promoted to major: they say that on the personal instructions of Yeltsin. And in 1992, the 25-year-old major was sent to study at the M.V. Frunze Military Academy: the breakthrough was simply unprecedented.
Pistols Surovikin
In 1995, a student of the Frunze Military Academy, Major Surovikin again fell into history, this time a purely criminal one. The military court of the Moscow garrison found him guilty under three articles of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR then in force: Part 1 of Article 17 (“Commission of a crime by a group of persons by prior agreement or by an organized group”), Article 218 (“Illegal carrying, storage, acquisition, manufacture or sale of weapons , ammunition or explosives") and Section 218 § 1 ("Theft of firearms, ammunition or explosives"). The future general was accused of complicity in the acquisition and sale, as well as carrying firearms and ammunition without a permit.
These articles of the then Criminal Code provided for substantial terms of imprisonment: 218 - from three to eight years, 218-1 - up to seven years, and if there was a preliminary conspiracy by a group of persons, or the act was committed "by a person to whom firearms, ammunition or explosives issued for official use or entrusted under guard", then up to ten years in prison. But the sentence turned out to be soft and completely humane: one year of imprisonment on probation. True, apart from the personnel bodies of the Ministry of Defense, no one would have known about this story if it were not for the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Chief Military Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky. On December 2, 2011, he sent an official letter to Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, in which he officially informed him of this incident. This was especially important in connection with the fact that Surovikin (by that time already a lieutenant general) headed a working group on the creation of military police bodies "with the prospect of being appointed head of the Main Directorate of the Military Police of the Ministry of Defense."
The Chief Military Prosecutor informed the Minister of Defense that "not only for moral and ethical reasons, but also in accordance with Article 20 of the draft federal law "On the Military Police of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation", a ban on service in the military police of citizens with or who had a criminal record is reasonably provided for." This demarche of the Chief Military Prosecutor did not go unanswered. The then newly created Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, represented by its Military Investigation Department, for some reason in the Southern Military District, to which Surovikin had nothing to do then, rose to the defense of the general.
One of the leading officials of this subdivision of the Investigative Committee admitted that "while studying at the Frunze Military Academy, there were cases when some teachers illegally sold weapons, for which they were criminally punished." And so, "fulfilling the request of one of these teachers, Major Surovikin agreed to hand over a pistol to a colleague from another course, which was supposed to be used supposedly to participate in the competition. The major, not knowing about the true intentions, fulfilled the order." During the interrogation, Major Surovikin told about his confidence that he was not doing anything illegal, and therefore, "when the investigation figured out that the officer had been set up, the charge was dropped and the conviction was extinguished."
All legal acts regulating the handling of personal service weapons unambiguously interpret its removal outside the military unit outside the framework of the performance of official duties as a crime. In peacetime and in a peaceful place, service weapons should be kept in a service safe or armory, from where they are issued when a serviceman is assigned to a squad or during test shooting, after which he surrenders again. The personal (service) weapon of an officer (type of weapon and its number) is recorded in his identity card.
But this is a personal service weapon, and a student of the military academy does not and cannot have any personal service weapon. Unless he is assigned to a patrol or squad for the academy: then he will receive a pistol and two clips, signing in the book for issuing weapons and ammunition, and after the outfit he will hand over, making a signature in the corresponding column in the same way. The loss of a weapon, as well as its theft or complicity in such, even out of "ignorance", is one of the most "bad" crimes for a regular officer, a black mark. And definitely a cross on a military career.
Many years later, Surovikin himself will say that for him "this topic" was allegedly closed back in 1995: "The investigation sorted out the case, established my innocence, they apologized to me and extinguished my criminal record," and then "the court decision on conviction was canceled, due to the absence of corpus delicti in my actions, the subject of speculation is no more." But, as follows from the letter of the chief military prosecutor, everything was not exactly like this: the investigation, of course, sorted it out, but, having filed charges, referred the case to court. Which delivered, albeit a conditional, but guilty verdict under three articles of the current Criminal Code.
Surovikin began to seek the abolition of the sentence only many years later, when he was already a general and in connection with the upcoming high appointment. That is, until this became an obstacle to the next career take-off, he fully agreed with the verdict and was not going to protest anything? But it seems that not the entire sentence was canceled, but only under two of the three articles of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR: for some reason, under the 17th (“Complicity”) and part 1 of Article 281 (“Theft of firearms, ammunition or explosives"). There is not a word about the abolition of the verdict in the part of article "just" 218 ("Illegal carrying, storage, acquisition, manufacture or sale of weapons, ammunition or explosives").
iron hand
The major was sent - formally to the war, but not to Chechnya, where the fighting was in full swing, but to the 201st motorized rifle division stationed in Tajikistan. At 32, he is already a colonel and the entire division chief of staff. Tajikistan was also considered a "hot spot" at that time, but by that time formally, since the 201st division actually did not conduct combat operations there: they ended in the summer of 1993. An officer I know, who served in the same 201st motorized rifle division in 1995, says that "there was a resort there then." Suppose, not quite a resort, but certainly not a full-fledged theater of operations. One way or another, but in Tajikistan, Surovikin also moved quickly through the ranks, quickly running through the steps of the battalion commander, the chief of staff of the regiment, the regiment commander, and then becoming the chief of staff of the division: from the battalion commander to the division chief of staff - in just five years.
In 2002, Surovikin graduated from the Academy of the General Staff - also with honors. Then a new appointment - to the Volga-Urals Military District, commander of the 34th motorized rifle division. The divisional commander was considered exemplary, earning a reputation as a stern commander and an "iron hand", making the connection advanced. Only the methods by which this was achieved can hardly be considered innovative: it was with the appointment of Surovikin to this position that the division regularly began to appear in scandals and criminal reports related to massacres and even murders.
For example, in March 2004, the military court of the Yekaterinburg garrison sentenced two conscripts of this division to eight years in prison for the murder of a fellow soldier, Yaroslav Lazarev. As it turned out, the soldier was killed with the knowledge of the officers, in fact, on their orders. In the summer of 2003, this soldier, having arrived home on a visit, did not return to the unit. But after a while, Lazarev was "figured out", tracked down and caught. Two officers of the special team threw the fugitive into the trunk of a car and brought him to the 32nd military camp, where the 34th division was stationed with its headquarters. On the evening of December 5, 2003, Captain Denis Shakovets, commander of the company in which Private Lazarev served, lined up his soldiers and, having explained to them the pernicious nature of unauthorized absences, ordered Lazarev to be tied to the bars of the armory.
After that, on the orders of the officer, two soldiers bullied the "defector" all night: first they beat the unfortunate man with forged boots, fists and batons, which made his eye bleed out. Then the guy was already tortured with electric shocks, tortured to death: on the morning of December 6, Lazarev died, crucified on a grate. But the real term, although short, received only two direct executors of the order. Captain Shakovets was given two years probation, and to General Surovikin, apparently, another gratitude - for bringing the division to the forefront, he also deserved the Order of Military Merit, it seems, at the same time.
Another story of the same period is completely connected with a massacre already in the office of the divisional commander himself. In March of the same 2004, Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Tsibizov turned to the prosecutor's office of the garrison with a statement that he had been beaten by the senior military commander - the division commander, Major General Surovikin. Lieutenant Colonel Tsibizov claimed that on March 15, 2004, together with two senior officers, the general beat him in his office because he voted "for the wrong candidate" at the by-elections to the State Duma on March 14 of the same year from the Verkh-Isetsky district. The general immediately hurried to accuse the lieutenant colonel of almost desertion: he allegedly did not appear in the service for a week and a half. The garrison prosecutor's office did not reveal anything: the witnesses "did not show up", and Tsibizov was forced to withdraw his statement. At the headquarters of the Volga-Urals Military District, the very fact of the general's massacre was categorically denied.
But the next case became absolutely egregious: on April 21 of the same 2004, in the same office of Surovikin in the closed 32nd military camp, his deputy for weapons, Colonel Andrey Shtakal, committed suicide. The 37-year-old colonel is survived by his wife and daughter. A criminal case was initiated on this fact, but it was soon closed. According to the military prosecutors, the situation was as follows: Lieutenant-General Alexander Stolyarov, deputy commander of the PUrVO troops, came to the division with a check, who remained dissatisfied with the results of the check. It was he who summoned Shtakal and Surovikin for a conversation in Surovikin's office.
Further, I quote, "remarks were made to the servicemen during the check. In response, Colonel Shtakal [committed suicide]. Thus, the investigation established that Surovikin was in no way guilty of this tragedy." In reality, no evidence was presented that Surovikin was also subjected to an official scolding and, in general, that this happened in the presence of the Zamkovy district. Then the official version suddenly underwent a change and there were no more witnesses left, and the question of incitement to suicide disappeared, as it were, by itself.
Guards Colonel Andrei Shtakal is a paratrooper, his reputation is impeccable, his colleagues unanimously spoke of him as a good commander and a very decent person. He is a participant in hostilities, holder of the Order of Courage, on his tunic is the sign of the Military Academy (apparently, the name of Frunze), a sign for many parachute jumps. Andrey Shtakal was appointed deputy commander of the 34th motorized rifle division for weapons in June 2003. He did not think of any suicide: not that character, a real fighter. And the colonel did not have any service pistol with him! The investigation made public such a detail: the shot was fired not from Colonel Shtakal's service PM, but from some stranger, allegedly belonging to a certain officer Bochkin. And according to one version, this Bochkin gave his award pistol to Shtakal so that he would hand it over to the warehouse, and the deputy division commander allegedly for some reason did not do this. Experts in forensic medical examination have their own addition: the nature of the colonel's wound indicated that he allegedly did not want to commit suicide, but intended only to imitate it, but "did not calculate the angle of application of the weapon to the temple."
True, my interlocutor, who once served in one of the departments of the General Staff, says that even if it is suicide, "the officers of a good commander do not shoot themselves in the office with service weapons."
The case was quickly closed, and Surovikin himself was sent from the PUrVO to Chechnya, as commander of the 42nd Guards Motorized Rifle Division. But even there, the commander had an emergency: on February 21, 2005, under the collapsed wall of a poultry farm in the village of Prigorodnoye, Grozny District, nine reconnaissance soldiers of the 70th motorized rifle regiment of the 42nd division were killed, three more were seriously injured. According to the official version, the militants fired from a grenade launcher. General Surovikin immediately became a television star, swearing in front of television cameras that for each dead soldier he would destroy three militants. But what kind of scouts are these who let the enemy approach their location? Soon they put forward a version of self-collapse. But journalists from Novaya Gazeta found out at the same time that there had been no battle and no shelling, and that one of the tipsy servicemen accidentally fired from a grenade launcher inside the building. Or careless dealt with a mine.
But the proceedings stalled, and soon General Surovikin was transferred from Chechnya to Voronezh, to be promoted - chief of staff - first deputy of the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army: in his incomplete 39 years. When Anatoly Serdyukov became Minister of Defense, Surovikin's career began to grow rapidly, and since April 2008 he has been commander of the 20th Army. He stayed in this position for seven months, and in November of the same year he quickly sat down in the chair of the head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GOU General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation). The GOU is the key department of the General Staff, it is it that is responsible for the strategic and operational planning of military operations and operational command and control of troops.
Traditionally, both in Soviet times and in the recent history of Russia, the GOU was headed by military leaders with predominantly rich staff experience, while Surovikin spent most of his military career in purely command positions. In addition, he came to the second most important post in the General Staff, having no experience of serving as the chief of staff of the military district and commander of the district troops. That is, he did not pass all the prescribed (and even mandatory for the head of the GOU) steps of the army ladder, before that all his experience was limited to tactical (division) and operational levels (army). In his new position, Surovikin lasted only 14 months. From January to December 2010, our hero was the chief of staff - the first deputy of the command troops of the PUrVO: the service life is purely nominal, less than a year! But along the way, Surovikin graduated from the Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense, having received a law degree.
General and his wife
Soon followed by a transfer to the already well-known Yekaterinburg - chief of staff - first deputy commander of the newly created Central Military District (TsVO). But even in this position, he stayed for a very short time, and in fact it was completely formal, since he had been on a long business trip since 2011: he was involved in the organization of the military police. He was transferred from Yekaterinburg quietly and behind the scenes, apparently at the urgent request of the district commander, Colonel General Vladimir Chirkin, who was tired of the numerous scandals in which Surovikin again managed to be noted. This time the scandals were connected with the business of his wife, Anna Borisovna Surovikina. That's what they said about the general in Yekaterinburg: this is the one who is the husband of a talented businesswoman.
Wives, as you know, are the greatest asset of the Russian bureaucratic elite: they are all exceptionally talented in business, and therefore just as exceptionally rich. Military officials are no exception here: while they vegetate on beggarly salaries, their spouses work furiously, increasing family wealth and fortune. So General Surovikin has an extremely talented, and therefore wealthy wife. According to 2016 data, when Surovikin commanded the troops of the Eastern Military District, his wife, with an income of 44.021 million rubles, took second place in the list of the richest spouses of employees of the Ministry of Defense. She had three apartments with a total area of 479 square meters. m, three land plots with a total area of about 4.1 thousand square meters. m, house 686 sq. m, parking place (12 sq. m) and non-residential premises (182 sq. m). Also, the general's wife was the owner of the Lexus RX 350.
Her husband earned much less that year: 10.4 million rubles. But he also has two apartments with a total area of 623 square meters. m and a passenger car Dodge Nitro. Anna Borisovna Surovikina, together with her daughter and cousin Alexander Misharin (governor of the Sverdlovsk region in 2009–2012), was the founder of the Argusles sawmill (the name Argus-SFK is also found). According to the then deputy of the Yekaterinburg Regional Duma, Leonid Volkov (now he leads the headquarters of Alexei Navalny), they sawed not only the forest, but also the regional budget. It is also known that Misharin is an old and close friend of Surovikin. As the resource "UralInformBuro" wrote back in April 2012, the talented wife of the general "not only runs a forestry business with the daughter of the governor Misharin, but, in conjunction with the security forces and officials of the regional government, seeks to enter any profitable areas of business."
After publications about his wife, as Leonid Volkov claimed, he was allegedly given the general’s threats: “This man has spoken several times in different groups of people over the past week that he will kill me because I offend his wife, slander her and so further. He did not convey any threats to me personally. He expressed his threats in a circle of people who obviously know me and communicate. This is such a way of saying hello." The scandal was noisy, but ended almost in sizzle: the general's wife sued Volkov, the court ordered him to remove something from the blog and pay moral compensation in the amount of 5 thousand rubles. When Misharin ceased to be the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, and General Surovikin was transferred from Yekaterinburg, the affairs of the Argus-SFK company went from bad to worse: huge debts ran up for renting land and forests to the regional budget - several tens of millions of rubles, the forest Surovikin's spouses and Misharin's daughters were taken away through the court, and the "innovative enterprise" went bankrupt.
"Love to death"
In the summer of 2011, another emergency occurred in the diocese of Surovikin: on the night of June 2-3, a fire broke out at the 102nd arsenal of the Central Military District, in Udmurtia. The warehouse stored 172.5 thousand tons of ammunition, of which 163.6 thousand tons - almost 95 percent - were destroyed by fire and explosions. Then 12 generals were brought to disciplinary responsibility, including Deputy Minister of Defense General of the Army Dmitry Bulgakov and commander of the district troops Colonel General Vladimir Chirkin. The chief of staff of the district was not punished, since he was then on vacation. On the other hand, Major General Sergey Chuvakin, who temporarily performed his duties, was punished. They whispered again that the general had a very “good dry-cleaner”, which perfectly removes stains from his uniform.
Surovikin himself left in the fall of 2012, one might say, for another promotion: for about a year he served as chief of staff - first deputy commander of the troops of the Eastern Military District (VVO), then was appointed commander of the VVO.
At one of the military forums, I found the following description of the officer who worked with him: “very smart, but he will love everyone around him to death. working hours, and even in Moscow the working day is in full swing, they pull, and from 6.00 - preparation for the morning meetings. A bunch of references, slides, etc. ... In short: woe from the mind. " Another officer, who also served under Surovikin in the Air Military District, complained that all his official and even night time was spent only on filling out notebooks and plans, preparing photo reports, drawing posters and writing numerous reports, while during checks they checked not combat training at all, but only physical education , and even those same notebooks and plans. In December 2013, Surovikin received the rank of Colonel General.
And in 2014, according to the current head of Navalny’s headquarters, Leonid Volkov, the commander of the troops of the Eastern Military District, Colonel-General Sergey Surovikin, for some reason, works not in his district, but in the Rostov region, where he directs the dispatch of his subordinates to the southeast of Ukraine tank units, the notorious “Buryat tankers.” Whether he personally led this process or not, it is obvious that without the knowledge of the commander of the troops of the Eastern Military District, no “Buryat tankmen” could have ended up in the Donbass.
The Ministry of Defense has chosen the main contenders for the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces (VKS). Two military leaders are being considered: Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Defense Ministry, Lieutenant General Igor Makushev, and Commander of the Space Forces, Colonel General Alexander Golovko. It is noteworthy that Colonel-General Sergei Surovikin was originally predicted for this post. His appointment could have been a sensation, since Surovikin is a combined arms commander.
As the Ministry of Defense told Izvestia, the final choice between Alexander Golovko and Igor Makushev will be made in the very near future, since the current commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev, will go to work in the Federation Council by the end of September. Both candidates are distinguished military leaders and have extensive leadership experience.
Lieutenant General Igor Makushev was born on August 6, 1964 in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. In 1985 he graduated from the Chernihiv Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots, and in 2006 from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
He has a reputation as an accomplished fighter pilot and combat commander. Makushev went through all the steps of the career ladder - from the pilot to the deputy commander of the air army. He has a qualification category "pilot-sniper" and a flight time of over 3 thousand hours. As deputy commander of the 16th air army, he took part in the operation to force Georgia to peace in August 2008. Igor Makushev became known to the general public when in the summer of 2014 he presented the position of the Russian military department in connection with the death of the Malaysian Boeing 777 at briefings.
In his current position, General Makushev solves the problems of scientific substantiation of promising areas of construction, development, training, use and support of the Armed Forces.
Unlike Makushev, the second candidate did not come from the flight crew, but from the space forces. Colonel-General Alexander Golovko was born on January 29, 1964 in Dnepropetrovsk. Graduated from the Kharkov Higher Military Command and Engineering School of Missile Troops (1986), the Military Academy. F.E. Dzerzhinsky (1996), Military Academy of the General Staff (2003).
From 1986 to 2001, he served in various command and engineering positions in the military units of the Main Test Center for Testing and Control of Space Assets. G.S. Titov (GICIU KS). In 2007, he headed the GICIU KS, and in 2011 he became the head of the Plesetsk cosmodrome. In December 2012, Golovko was appointed commander of the Aerospace Defense Forces.
According to Izvestia, until recently, the commander of the Eastern Military District (VVO), Colonel General Sergei Surovikin, was considered the main contender. True, according to some reports, he himself refused this position. After all, even the very fact of considering the candidacy of a "land" general became a kind of sensation in military circles.
Sergei Surovikin graduated from the Omsk Higher Combined Arms Command School in 1987, and later from the Academy. M.V. Frunze and the Military Academy of the General Staff. He went through all the stages of an officer's career. In the 1990s he served in Tajikistan in the 201st motorized rifle division, and in the 2000s he commanded the 42nd guards division in Chechnya. In 2012, he led the working group of the Russian Defense Ministry on the creation of a military police. In October 2013, Surovikin was appointed commander of the Eastern Military District.
The reason for the nomination of Surovikin for the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces was that he commanded a group of troops in Syria, where he was able to effectively integrate ground forces, aviation, air defense systems and a space group into a single system.
The fact that the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev will be delegated to the Federation Council from the Kirov region, became known in July this year. Bondarev has held the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force since May 6, 2012. Colonel-General was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces on August 1, 2015. It was under him that the Air Force turned into the Aerospace Forces due to the integration of the Aerospace Defense Forces into them.
Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces Sergei Surovikin to the commanders of formations, military units and subdivisions of the forces entrusted to him, in which he ordered his subordinates to remove flowers, paintings, calendars and other “documents not in frames” hanging on the walls from their offices, the experts assessed as a deliberate stuffing. His goal, they believe, is to publicly discredit the results of the experiment, which is the very appointment of General Surovikin, who is far from aviation, to this post.
“This story is not at all about how a tanker manages aviation. The very need to build a system of competent interspecific interaction in the leadership of the Armed Forces is long overdue, and Surovikin's work (at all understandable costs) is rather a plus in this sense. We are sure that General Surovikin himself understands very clearly what he understands and what he does not. Against this background, the story with flowers in the offices is just flowers,” the authors of the telegram channel “The look of a man in stripes” note.
Experts draw attention to the fact that the published leak is a bad sign for another reason. It clearly shows that a quiet opposition to the commander-in-chief has matured in the leadership of the Russian Aerospace Forces. A telegram has been thrown into the public field, disseminating instructions that were voiced several years ago and are capable of spoiling the image of the colonel-general, perhaps among ignorant civilians.
“This happens, of course, for purely random reasons that have nothing to do with official showdowns. But we tend to assume that in this case the stuffing was done intentionally. Someone wants to publicly discredit the results of the experiment, which is the very appointment of General Surovikin to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces. But they do this not with real arguments - about changes in the results of combat training of pilots, for example, but with the help of petty nonsense. The real results of Surovikin’s activities are not only not discussed, but simply no one knows about them in the public space, ”the authors of the telegram channel comment.
It has already been reported that the telegram was sent on September 20 to the commanders of the military units of the VKS with the call signs Zheleznyak, Vodometer, Zenitka and Bolgarin. The document states:
“In accordance with the oral instructions of the Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces and in order to organize the work of commanders (chiefs of staff) of formations, military units and subunits ... commanders (chiefs of staff) of formations, military units and subunits should remove from their offices: flowers, calendars from the walls, paintings, from the walls documents that are not within the framework.
Adds: Colonel-General Hero of Russia Sergei Surovikin, who led the Russian grouping of troops in Syria, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces on October 31, 2017 by presidential decree. He became the first head of the Air Force / Aerospace Forces of Russia and the USSR since the 1920s, having no experience in flying and working in aviation.
The 52-year-old general graduated from the Omsk Higher Combined Arms Command School named after M.V. Frunze in 1987, in 1995 from the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze, and in 2002 from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. He commanded motorized rifle units in the ground forces - a battalion, a division, was deputy commander, and then commander of the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army (Voronezh). From March to December 2017, he commanded a grouping of troops of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria.
In June of this year, information appeared that Surovikin could replace the army general Valeria Gerasimova as deputy defense minister. Sources claimed that “the corresponding decree of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin will be published shortly."
It is not the first day that the news has been spreading in the media that the Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces has been appointed and General Surovikin S.V. will become it. He will take this post instead of General Viktor Bondarev. The Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces received a new distribution and will work in the Federation Council. The former commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces will work with the committee in the field of defense and security and is currently preparing to take on a new position. The new appointment of the Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces and the reshuffle in the leadership were not unambiguously perceived by everyone.
How military personnel in the VKS reacted to the appointment
The military personnel of the Aerospace Forces reacted especially negatively to this appointment. Although the dismissal of Bondarev, the commander of the VKS, is also due to the fact that his leadership has distinguished itself by an increased number of air accidents. But unlike his predecessor, Sergey Surovikin never had anything to do with the air force, he commanded motorized rifle formations for most of his military career, and in recent years he led the work of the detachment in Syria. According to the pilots, entrusting the command of the Aerospace Forces to a person who had no experience at the helm of an aircraft is an extremely reckless decision.
Major General of the Air Force Alexander Tsialko also took this news without much enthusiasm. In his opinion, the commander-in-chief of the VKS should be a professional in his field. With such assignments, it often happens that the commander has to be taught basic knowledge first. It will be difficult for him to delve into the documents, the organization of work and simply understand the life of the pilots. The command of such troops is trained in specialized military educational institutions.
It is because of the incompetence of the leadership that there are cases of death of pilots on duty. The VKS commander must listen to his deputies in order to avoid mistakes in leadership. Tsialko believes that Surovikin will not always do this. Therefore, problems cannot be avoided.
It's no secret that pilots dislike infantry. This is not due to great pride, but due to the fact that you need to understand the flying business. Pilots have their own special language for orders. Thanks to this, the generals put all the necessary tasks to their subordinates. For this reason alone, the new GK VKS may have problems with interaction and management.
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What is known about the new boss
Commander-in-Chief of the VKS S.V. Surovikin went through a difficult military path. His biography has difficult moments. The new head of the VKS is 50 years old, he is a regular professional military man who graduated from the military combined arms command school located in Omsk. Sergei Vladimirovich began his service back in the days of the Soviet army. Immediately after graduation, he was sent to serve in Afghanistan. He served during the war on the territory of Tajikistan, as well as in the North Caucasus. In 2002 he became a graduate of the military academy at the General Staff.
In the period 2002-2004, he headed the 34th motorized rifle division stationed in Yekaterinburg. Then he served in the 42nd division during the period of hostilities during the military conflict in the Republic of Chechnya. There he held mainly command positions and took part in the work of the headquarters. Since October 2013, he has led military formations as part of the Air Defense Forces. Since 2017, he has led the work of Russian troops in Syria. He has military awards, was awarded orders such as "for courage" and "for courage".
In the 1990s, in Tajikistan, at the risk of his life, he delivered military equipment and personnel to ensure the elimination of the serious consequences of a natural disaster in the affected regions of this country. Many of the general's colleagues speak of him as an experienced and professional military man.
But not everything is so smooth in the biography of the future commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces. There was a moment in his life when he was taken into custody after the death of civilians. This happened in 1991, when he was still the captain of the Toman division. By order of the State Emergency Committee, he was to participate in restoring order in troubled Moscow. On August 21, at night, he was ordered to break through the barricades of civilians set up near the Garden Ring. He led the BMP column. As a result of the collision, three picketers were killed.
After this tragedy, he was forced to spend seven months in Matrosskaya Tishina, but, later, the charges were dropped, and the rank was raised to major, with the light hand of Boris Yeltsin.
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Another case occurred with Sergei Surovikin in 2004. His subordinate wrote a report to the prosecutor's office about beating him by his commander, because of the wrong vote in the elections, and a month later his subordinate shot himself. But in both cases, the fault of the division commander was not proven.
Creation of military police
Sergei Vladimirovich Surovikin stood at the origins of the creation of the structure of the military police, it was he who opened this structure. The authority of this unit includes the activities of the FSB and military counterintelligence. The military police not only carry out patrol tasks, but also carry out operational activities. The servicemen of these units are also required to monitor the maintenance of the Guardhouse.
Creating this structure S.V. Surovikin was supposed to become its head, but due to the fact that a long-standing conviction surfaced, for which he received 1 year probation, his candidacy was removed from consideration.
He received a criminal record as a result of a case where he was found guilty of trafficking in firearms. Later it turned out that he was set up, the conviction was canceled, but such an incident was not forgotten in the prosecutor's office. The chief military prosecutor of the Russian Federation opposed his candidacy and in 2011, in his letter to the Minister of Defense, he expressed his position. The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Federation, in order to avoid conflict, sent Surovikin to the post of Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Military District.
Last appointment
Information that Surovikin will be appointed commander-in-chief of the VKS troops has been discussed among the military for a long time. It is believed that he received such an appointment after his excellent work carried out in the Syrian conflict. Despite the fact that he is a typical land commander, he managed to organize the work of aviation, air defense systems, space troops and motorized rifle formations.
Two other candidates were considered for this position:
- Lieutenant General Igor Mokushev;
- representative of the Space Forces Alexander Golovko.
S.V. Surovikin was not considered with particular seriousness among the possible candidates. Both candidates went through their military career and were associated with activities in the field of rocket and air forces, but the choice was made on this issue for other reasons.
The pilots did not want to see the candidacy of Alexander Golovko. Since at the time of the creation of the Aerospace Forces, the rocket and space forces very actively began to master the budget allocated to the entire structure. For this reason, Golovko, as a representative of the rocket and space forces, was not the best option. Therefore, the choice not in his favor only pleased the representatives of the Air Force.
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General Sergei Surovikin was chosen due to the fact that he has a wealth of combined arms experience. In such a position, a representative of one type of troops will experience difficulties. The example of his predecessor, Viktor Bondarev, is illustrative. There is an opinion that the Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces, Lieutenant General Viktor Bondarev, is leaving precisely because of the plane crash that happened in 2016 in Sochi. This tragedy influenced the decision not in his favor.
For Surovikin, the news of the appointment also came as a surprise, but he has good experience in commanding various types of troops and acts as a good manager. Therefore, despite all the complexity, there is hope that he will perfectly understand this issue, as he always did. Due to the fact that the Aerospace Forces is becoming a real inter-arms structure, it includes not only the Air Force troops, but also the Air Defense Forces and the Space and Rocket Forces. This is a structure that acts in the interests of all troops of the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
Russia may change the commander of its troops in Syria, the government of Bashar al-Assad and the Turkish authorities are increasingly discussing the situation in Afrin (controlled by the Kurds), and in Damascus a Russian center for reconciliation of the warring parties was fired upon. The situation in Syria as of Tuesday looks less and less like the end of the “hot phase” of the conflict, which was discussed at the end of 2017 after the victory over ISIS. Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the deaths and injuries of mercenaries from Russia and the CIS countries on the night of February 7-8 - we are talking about dozens of people. According to the Pentagon, there were 257 people who attacked the gas processing plant (because of it, the fight happened), however, not all of them were from Russia and the CIS.
New old assignment
The fact that the Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces (VKS), Colonel General Sergei Surovikin, may be sent to Syria to command a grouping of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, on Tuesday, citing its own sources, RIA Novosti reported. Kommersant’s interlocutors close to the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces also called this decision “very likely”, specifying that the trip, if a decision is made, can take place no earlier than March. In this case, the current commander of the group, General Alexander Zhuravlev, will return to his duties as commander of the Eastern Military District. The Ministry of Defense does not officially comment on this information.
Colonel General Zhuravlev has been in Syria since the beginning of the Russian military operation in September 2015. He served as chief of staff of the group (it was then headed by General Alexander Dvornikov; for the first stage of the operation, both received Hero of Russia stars). From July to December 2016, he commanded the Russian armed forces in Syria on his own. During this time, the Russian Aerospace Forces took an active part in the attack on Aleppo, but Palmyra was again occupied by militants of the Islamic State (the organization is banned in the Russian Federation). He returned to Syria in December 2017 by chance: initially, the leadership of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces planned to send Andrei Serdyukov, commander of the Airborne Forces, to the republic, but shortly before the trip, he got into an accident and was seriously injured. General Zhuravlev was again entrusted with the task of reducing the grouping and completing the active phase of the operation.
Difficulties began almost immediately. On the night of January 1, radical Islamists fired mortars at the Khmeimim air base. Two servicemen were killed, several aircraft were seriously damaged. According to Kommersant, the tragic consequences could have been avoided if the "security perimeter" had been cleared around the facility. But due to the New Year holidays, the duty at the air base was carried out by a smaller number of people. Conclusions were drawn from the incident, and the repeated attack of the Islamists, which happened on the night of January 6, but with the use of UAVs, was repelled. On February 3, in the province of Idlib, a Su-25SM attack aircraft was shot down from a MANPADS, the pilot of which was given the task of patrolling the territory by the command of the group. Prior to this, only one aircraft was destroyed in the air - the Su-24M, which the Turkish Air Force shot down in 2015. All this was accompanied by communication difficulties. Many allied Syrian detachments refused to report their plans and movements to the Russian command, which often led to disorganization.
Against this background, the Syrian experience of General Surovikin looks more solid. The Ministry of Defense emphasized that it was under his command that a turning point in the fight against the Islamic State was reached and, according to official data from the Ministry of Defense, more than 98% of the territory of Syria captured by ISIS was liberated. However, a number of territories, which are clearly more than 2%, were cleared of ISIS by US-led coalition troops and Kurdish units.
The story of the release of a military police platoon surrounded by terrorists in September 2017, when the general sent a group to rescue 28 Russian servicemen without approval, came out loud. Often, traveling to the positions of the Syrian government troops, he helped local commanders in planning operations. This, according to Kommersant, was also appreciated by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The very same title of "Hero of Russia" he received following the results of a nine-month Syrian business trip (he stayed there longer than all the other commanders of the Russian Armed Forces grouping). Yes, and the general himself, according to his friends, wanted to return to Syria: this activity attracted him much more than desk work. During the absence of Sergei Surovikin, his deputy will act as commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
Uncoordinated fights
Under General Zhuravlev, another incident occurred in Syria. We are talking about a clash on the night of February 8 near the Hisham point on the east bank of the Euphrates, when Kurdish and American forces entered into battle with a detachment, which included citizens of Russia and the CIS countries, who tried to occupy a hydrocarbon processing plant controlled by the Kurds. The military is solely responsible for the actions of military personnel, and not volunteers (from the so-called Wagner PMC). However, on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry officially confirmed the injuries of dozens of citizens of the Russian Federation and the CIS during the recent battle, specifying that the department cannot “assess the eligibility and legality of such of them (participants in the clash from the Russian side.- "b") solutions”. At the same time, as the diplomats assured, all of them were assisted upon their return to Russia, where the wounded are being treated "in various medical institutions."
The number of wounded participants in the battle near Hisham, taken to medical facilities in Russia, may exceed a hundred, an acquaintance of one of the Wagner PMC fighters, who visited him in a Moscow hospital, told Kommersant. He made such a conclusion on the basis of the number of his comrade in the list of the wounded. At the same time, according to him, it was initially decided to leave some of the wounded in Syria. The Russian Foreign Ministry did not name the exact number of wounded, specifying that we are talking about "dozens". Earlier, the interlocutor of Kommersant, who visited a Moscow hospital, said that he personally saw only two people delivered after the battle in the vicinity of Deir ez-Zor, but they talked about the delivery of 30 wounded to Russia "by a special aircraft from the Khmeimim air base."
A former employee of PMC Wagner, as well as a former colleague of several dead near Hisham, confirmed to Kommersant: the wounded in Syria - Russians, as well as citizens of Ukraine (primarily from the Donbass) and other CIS countries - are being treated in hospitals in Moscow, the Moscow region, St. Petersburg and Rostov. According to Kommersant's sources, according to contracts with firms representing PMCs, those injured as a result of American artillery and aviation strikes can count on compensation of 700 thousand rubles, and the families of the victims - on compensation from 3 million to 5 million rubles.
The total number of Russian-speaking fighters of the detachment that participated in the attack on the positions of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, according to Kommersant's interlocutors, exceeded 500 people. True, the Pentagon, which is conducting its own investigation of the incident, claims that on February 7, 257 armed fighters who attacked the positions of Kurdish formations crossed the Euphrates. In return fire (F-15E fighters, B-52 bombers, MQ-9 attack drones, AC-130 "flying batteries" and AH-64 Apache helicopters), "more than a hundred" were killed. The Pentagon has so far refused to speculate about the possible belonging of these forces to Russia or the Syrian army, citing an ongoing investigation. The Ministry of Defense, in turn, claims that the forces that attacked the plant (they are called "militia" in the department) did not coordinate their actions with the command of the Russian group of troops in Syria.
Damascus Steel vs Olive Branch
Meanwhile, in the north-west of Syria, controlled by the Kurds, the main troublemaker turned out to be one of the official guarantors of the Syrian peace, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. President Erdogan, who is conducting the Olive Branch military operation against the Kurds, which was not coordinated with Damascus, on Tuesday announced his intention to speed up the offensive against the city of Afrin, controlled by the Kurdish People's Self-Defense Forces and the Democratic Union Party. “All our steps are very important in terms of security. In the coming days, the center of the city of Afrin will be surrounded by us,” Mr. Erdogan promised during a speech in Ankara, which was broadcast by the Turkish TV channel A Haber.
The Turkish leader's statement came after Operation Olive Branch, for the first time since it began on January 20, faced unexpected opposition from the Syrian authorities. On Monday, Damascus announced its determination “in the next few hours” to take control of positions controlled by Kurdish formations in the Afrin region and a number of areas bordering Turkey where Kurds live. The primary source of information was the statement of the official Syrian agency SANA, which was expressed in very harsh tones towards Ankara. "The Syrian People's Forces will enter Afrin in the coming hours to support the resilience of the residents against Turkish aggression," the Sana news agency reported. Thus, Damascus has shown a willingness not to be content with the role of an extra watching the operation "Olive Branch", and has indicated its intention to put up a barrier to further Turkish advance inland.
On Tuesday evening, the media reported the entry into the Afrin region of paramilitary fighters supporting the Syrian government forces. Representatives of the Kurdish forces confirmed the arrival of pro-government militias. At the same time, it was reported that the Turkish military fired at the area through which the Syrian formations were moving. Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that Syrian pro-government troops were trying to enter the Afrin area, but said they "retreated after shelling." Official Damascus did not comment on the operation on Tuesday evening.
The leaks that appeared about the possibility of the Kurds going under the “Damascus umbrella” apparently provoked a nervous reaction from Ankara. “If the Syrian regime takes this path, it will not remain without consequences,” President Erdogan warned on Monday, without specifying how far Ankara would be ready to go in the confrontation with Damascus.
In turn, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu outlined the conditions under which Ankara's confrontation with Damascus could be avoided. According to him, the Turkish side will not object to the fact that the Syrian government forces occupied Afrin to fight terrorists. However, if Damascus's main motive is to protect the Kurds, "no one can stop the Turkish troops," Mevlut Cavusoglu warned.
The situation in northwestern Syria has put Moscow in a difficult position, seeking to prevent an escalation of the conflict and achieve a compromise between Ankara and Damascus on the Kurdish issue.
On Monday, President Erdogan discussed the Afrin situation with his Russian counterpart by phone. According to Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, the topic of Afrin was also discussed during a meeting of the Russian Security Council held on Tuesday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov outlined the Russian position in more detail. According to the minister, "Turkey's legitimate security interests may well be realized and satisfied through direct dialogue" with the Syrian government. “We strongly advocate that any problems be resolved while respecting the territorial integrity of the respective state, in this case Syria,” Sergey Lavrov added.
In parallel, another event took place that called into question the agreements on the end of the active phase of hostilities in Syria and the creation of de-escalation zones, reached last November in Sochi by the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran. The tragedy in the East Ghouta de-escalation zone on Monday night led to a sharp destabilization, as a result of which only dozens of people were killed and hundreds were injured. This incident became the largest after reaching agreements between Russia, Turkey and Iran and attempts to resume the peace process in Geneva and Sochi. The opposition reports massive bombardments by the Syrian army of the suburbs of Damascus, while the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties announced an increase in provocations by militants shelling residential areas of the capital.
Maxim Solopov, Sergei Strokan, Ivan Synergiev, Alexandra Djordjevic
