Didn’t have to wait long for this. This morning President Medvedev signed out the ukaz with appointments to command positions in the VKO Troops (VVKO).
Kommersant’s source was mostly, but not completely, right. Valeriy Ivanov will be chief of staff, and Sergey Popov, the chief of air defense for the Air Forces, will move to VVKO to command its Air and Missile Defense Command.
Appoint:
- General-Lieutenant Valeriy Mikhaylovich Ivanov, Chief of Staff, First Deputy Commander, Troops of Aerospace Defense, relieved as Commander, Operational-Strategic Command of Aerospace Defense.
- General-Lieutenant Sergey Aleksandrovich Lobov, Deputy Commander, Troops of Aerospace Defense, relieved as Deputy Commander, Space Troops.
- General-Major Oleg Vladimirovich Maydanovich, Commander, Space Command, relieved as Chief, 153rd Main Test Center for Testing and Control of Space Systems.
- Colonel Konstantin Aleksandrovich Ogiyenko, Commander, 5th Air Defense Brigade.
- General-Lieutenant Oleg Nikolayevich Ostapenko, Commander, Troops of Aerospace Defense, relieved as Commander, Space Troops.
- General-Major Sergey Vladimirovich Popov, Commander, Air and Missile Defense Command, relieved as Chief, Air Defense, Deputy CINC of the Air Forces for Air Defense.
There you have it. What looks like it will be a new service — VVKO — is born, and an old branch — KV — apparently will go away. More presidential paperwork on that is likely forthcoming. But today we’ve learned who’s in VVKO’s head shed, and that its two major components will be, not surprisingly, the Space Command and Air and Missile Defense Command.
Russian Defense Policy 