The general Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, is missing. He was not seen in the Victory Day parade in Moscow, where more than 10,000 people participated in a great military exhibition. The absence of one of the highest authorities of the Army, considered by some as a Postmodern Machiavelli, has raised all kinds of rumors about his health and his status as chief of the General Staff. Some sources close to the Ukrainian government maintain that Vladimir Putin Gerasimov could have been suspended from his duties due to the failures reaped by the Russian troops during the invasion of Ukraine. Other voices believe that the general is convalescing after being wounded in Iziuma Ukrainian town, where he moved to closely follow the development of what the Kremlin calls “special military operation.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a veteran military intelligence analyst and member of the president’s inner circle Volodymyr Zelensky, affirmed that Gerasimov, also First Deputy Defense Minister, has been dismissed from his post while the Kremlin looks for a high command that can replace him, a version that has not been officially confirmed by kyiv or Moscow. “According to preliminary information, Gerasimov has been de facto suspended. They are deciding whether to give him time to fix things or not,” Arestovych explained Wednesday, adding that the commander of the First Tank Army of the Western Military District, Lieutenant General Sergei Kissel, he was arrested and fired after the First Tank Army was defeated near Kharkov.
Gerasimov, military ideologue and general trained in the USSR, has led the Russian Armed Forces for more than ten years and is considered by many to be Putin’s right-hand man in the military field and one of the brains of Russian security. He is not in vain he is one of the three men who possesses the codes for a nuclear action.
In January 2013, he gave a speech at the Academy of Military Sciences entitled “The value of science lies in anticipation” which gave rise to the so-called “Gerasimov Doctrine” that delves into the importance of hybrid warfare in the modern world. This theory combines the elements of traditional warfare with new destabilizing actions, such as cyber warfare. In a 2016 speech Gerasimov defended the importance of information warfare: “The falsification of eventsthe limitation of the activity of the information media, become one of the most effective asymmetric methods for conducting wars”.
The limited achievements of the Russian troops in Ukraine as a result of the invasion they would have unleashed a host of reproaches in the Kremlin, which has hardly been able to show significant victories in two and a half months of war. It is unknown to what extent this discontent has affected Gerasimov and what repercussions it will have on his mission as the main architect of the invasion of Ukraine.
What is known is that Gerasimov he was injured in the leg when he visited Ukraine at the end of April. According to The New York Times, the general was able to escape from the city before suffering major damage during an attack by the Ukrainian Army, which has managed kill eleven generals since the armed conflict began on February 24.
Find Your Own Telegram, administered by the kyiv Ministry of the Interior, assured this Wednesday that “after the failure in Ukraine there are repressions and purges within the Russian army.” One of the victims of this cleaning would have been the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Igor Osipov, who would have been removed from office and arrested. The first deputy commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Sergei Pinchuk. Another of those disgraced would be Arkady Marzoev, commander of the 22nd Army Corps of the Southern Military District.
Ukraine claims to have inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy ranks. According to their data, in the war 26,650 Russian soldiers would have died. In addition, 1,195 battle tanks, 2,873 armored vehicles, 534 artillery systems, and 87 air defense units, 199 planes and 161 helicopters were reportedly destroyed.
A few days ago, the Russian oligarch Oleg Tinkov, said after leaving Russia and harshly criticizing the invasion of Ukraine that the Russian Army is not in a good position to face this war. “Why should we have a good Army if everything in this country is dysfunctional and hampered by nepotism, servility and submission?”
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