Vedomosti’s been following the rather turgid decrees from Defense Minister Serdyukov, and apparently managed to notice that he’s ordered 30 percent of Armed Forces officers to change duty stations before 1 December (the beginning of the 2012 training year).
Rotating officers every three years is a policy Serdyukov’s pushed since at least late 2009, if not earlier. And it’s quite a shift in thinking for a military establishment in which officers often served their entire careers in the same district or garrison, or even unit.
It’s a good and overdue shakeup, but one that brings costs and headaches that the Defense Ministry always wanted to avoid. For example, in the not-distant past, officers would try to avoid remote assignments, of course, or ones where their wives would find it difficult to work or their children to get a good education. Or they might not want to go somewhere that couldn’t provide equivalent service housing, or might be a terminal assignment in an undesirable location.
All this is just by way of saying that the cadre moves we’ve followed in President Medvedev’s decrees on Armed Forces personnel changes seem to confirm a pretty unprecedented rate of reassignments and rotations, at least for O-6s and above. And they’ve confirmed more of an effort to move senior officers up in rank, or out at age 50, 55, or 60.
In any event, an overlooked decree from 30 March.
Appoint:
- Colonel Nikolay Nikolayevich Galchishak, Commander, 5th Independent Tank Brigade, 36th Army.
- Colonel Vyacheslav Nikolayevich Gurov, Commander, 6th Independent Tank Brigade, 20th Army.
- Lieutenant Colonel Vladislav Nikolayevich Yershov, Commander, 21st Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade, 2nd Army.
- Colonel Sergey Nikolayevich Kombarov, Commander, 7th Independent Tank Brigade.
- Colonel Eduard Vladimirovich Filatov, Commander, 9th Independent Motorized Rifle Brigade, 20th Army.
Relieve:
- General-Major Aleksandr Sergeyevich Nikitin, Chief, Operational Directorate, Far East MD.
Relieve and dismiss from military service:
- General-Major Yuriy Eduardovich Kuznetsov, Commander, 6950th Aviation Base (1st Rank).
Dismiss from military service:
- General-Major of Justice Grigoriy Petrovich Kuleshov.
Russian Defense Policy 