| Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation Министерство обороны Российской Федерации |
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Flag of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation |
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| Formation | 20 August 1991 |
| Website | Official website(Russian) |
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (Russian: Министерство обороны Российской Федерации) exercises operational leadership of the armed forces of Russia.
The Russian Minister of Defence is the nominal commander of all the armed forces, serving under the president of the Russian Federation, in whom executive authority over the military is vested. In this capacity, the minister exercises day-to-day operational authority over the armed forces. The General Staff, the executive body of the Ministry of Defence, implements instructions and orders of the defense minister. The Russian president is the commander in chief. The State Duma exercises legislative authority over the Ministry of Defence through the Government of Russia, which is nominally responsible for maintaining the armed forces at the appropriate level of readiness.
The main ministry building, built in the 1980s, is located on Arbatskaya Square, near Arbat Street. Other buildings of the ministry are located on Vozdvizhenka Street, and on the Frunzenskaya embankment.
The current Russian minister of Defence is Anatoly Serdyukov.
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The authors of the U.S. Library of Congress Country Studies' volume for Russia said in July 1996 that:
The structure of the Russian defence ministry does not imply military subordination to civilian authority in the Western sense.[1] The historical tradition of military command is considerably different in Russia. The tsars were educated as officers, and they regularly wore military uniforms and held military rank. Joseph Stalin in his later years in power frequently wore a military uniform, and he assumed the title Generalissimo of the Soviet Union. Likewise, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was named Marshal of the Soviet Union. By tradition dating back to the tsars, the minister of defence was a uniformed officer,' with military background (Dmitry Milyutin, Rodion Malinovsky) or without (Dmitriy Ustinov), up until the appointment of Sergei Ivanov in 2001. 'The State Duma also seats a large number of deputies who are active-duty military officers—another tradition that began in the Russian imperial era. These combinations of military and civilian authority ensure that military concerns are considered at the highest levels of the Russian government.
In May 1992, President of Russia Boris Yeltsin appointed General of the Army Pavel Grachev to the post of Minister of Defence. Grachev's decision to side with Yeltsin in the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993, when the president called up tanks to shell the Russian White House to blast his opponents out of parliament, effectively deprived the Supreme Council (Soviet) of the Russian Federation of its nominal an opportunity to overturn the president's authority. At least partly for that reason, Yeltsin retained his defense minister despite intense criticism of Grachev's management of the First Chechen War and the Russian military establishment in general. Finally, Yeltsin's victory in the first round of the 1996 Russian presidential election spurred Yeltsin to dismiss Grachev.
In March 2001, Sergei Ivanov, previously secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation was appointed defence minister by President Vladimir Putin, becoming Russia's first non-uniformed civilian defense minister.[2] Putin called the personnel changes in Russia's security structures coinciding with Ivanov's appointment as defence minister "a step toward demilitarizing public life." Putin also stressed Ivanov's responsibility for overseeing military reform as defense minister. What Putin did not emphasise was Ivanov's long service within the KGB and FSB and his then rank of General-Lieutenant within the FSB. Such military and security agency associated men are known as siloviki.
As of 2002 there were four living Marshals of the Soviet Union. Such men are automatically Advisors to the Defence Minister. The Marshals alive at that time were Viktor Kulikov, Vasily Petrov, Sergei Sokolov, a former Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union, and Dmitri Yazov. Yazov was listed by the American analysts Scott and Scott in 2002 as a consultant to the (former 10th) Directorate for International Military Cooperation[3]
Perhaps the first 'real' non-uniformed Defence Minister was Anatoliy Serdyukov, appointed in February 2007. Serdyukov was a former Tax Minister with little siloviki or military associations beyond his two years' military service.
The Ministry of Defence is managed by a collegium of two first deputy ministers, two deputy ministers,[4] and a chief military inspector, who together form the principal staff and advisory board of the minister of defence. The executive body of the Ministry of Defence is the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It is commanded by the Chief of General Staff. U.S. expert William Odom said in 1998 that 'the Soviet General Staff without the MoD is conceivable, but the MoD without the General Staff is not.'[5] Russian General Staff officers exercise command authority in their own right. In 1996 the General Staff included fifteen main directorates and an undetermined number of operating agencies. The staff is organized by functions, with each directorate and operating agency overseeing a functional area, generally indicated by the organization's title.
Military Thought is the military-theoretical journal of the Ministry of Defence, and Krasnaya Zvezda its daily newspaper.
The Minister of Defence and his personal aides and advisors, as well as the Collegium of the Ministry of Defence, head the whole structure. An outline structure of the Ministry of Defence includes the groupings below, but this structure was in transition when it was recorded in 2004, with several deputy minister posts being abolished:[6]
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Marshal of Aviation Yevgeny Shaposhnikov was the last Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union. General Colonel Konstantin Kobets supported then President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Boris Yeltsin during the August coup of 1991. From August 19 until September 9, 1991, Konstantin Kobets was Defense Minister of the RSFSR, though there was no ministry.[8] This post was then abolished.
The first Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation was Boris Yeltsin, who appointed himself to the position by a decree of mid March 1992.[9]
| # | Picture | Name | Military Rank | Took Office | Left Office | President served under |
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| Konstantin Kobets | Colonel General General of the Army |
August 20, 1991 | September 9, 1991 | Boris Yeltsin | ||
| Between September 9, 1991 and May 7, 1992 the Russian Federation de jure didn't have its own Minister of Defence. During this period its armed forces were under control of Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union Yevgeny Shaposhnikov | ||||||
| Boris Yeltsin | No military rank | March 16, 1992 | May 18, 1992 | Himself | ||
| 1 | Pavel Grachev | General of the Army | May 18, 1992 | June 18, 1996 | Boris Yeltsin | |
| 2 | Mikhail Kolesnikov | General of the Army | June 18, 1996 | July 17, 1996 | ||
| 3 | Igor Rodionov | Colonel General General of the Army General of the Army in reserve |
July 17, 1996 | May 22, 1997 | ||
| 4 | Igor Sergeyev | Marshal of the Russian Federation | May 22, 1997 | March 28, 2001 | Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin | |
| 5 | Sergei Ivanov | Colonel General in reserve | March 28, 2001 | February 15, 2007 | Vladimir Putin | |
| 6 | Anatoly Serdyukov | No military rank | February 15, 2007 | Incumbent | Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev |
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