The deck of generals has been shuffled somewhat. But fairly little notice was given to the mid-June reassignments of General-Colonel Vladimir Zarudnitskiy, General-Colonel Nikolay Bogdanovskiy, and General-Lieutenant Andrey Kartapolov.
General-Colonel Zarudnitskiy departs the General Staff’s Main Operations Directorate (GOU) to take over the Central MD, replacing General-Colonel Bogdanovskiy.
Zarudnitskiy (left) Receives Central MD Standard from Deputy Defense Minister Pankov (photo: Mil.ru)
Zarudnitskiy’s background is pretty well summarized here. He is 56.
Bogdanovskiy leaves the Central MD to become First Deputy Chief of the General Staff — a post recreated after former Defense Minister Serdyukov cut it.
General-Colonel Nikolay Bogdanovskiy (Wearing Two Stars)
Bogdanovskiy’s had an interesting career path. He commanded an army in the Far East before becoming a deputy commander of the old Far East MD. He served as First Deputy CINC, Chief of the Main Staff of Ground Troops. He commanded the old Leningrad MD. He was again a deputy CINC of Ground Troops and Chief of the Main Combat Training Directorate from early 2011 until his late 2012 assignment to the Central MD. Bogdanovskiy was early rumored to be a candidate to replace General-Colonel Chirkin as Ground Troops CINC. He is 57.
Find coverage on Zarudnitskiy and Bogdanovskiy at Mil.ru.
General-Lieutenant Andrey Kartapolov is a fresher face. He’s 50.
General-Lieutenant Andrey Kartapolov (photo: B-port.com)
The most cursory review of Kartapolov’s career shows he was an O-6 commanding a machine gun-artillery division in the Far East in the early 2000s. In 2007, he served as a deputy commander of the Novosibirsk-based 41st CAA. He then became First Deputy Commander, Chief of Staff for the 22nd CAA in Nizhegorod. In 2010, he commanded the 58th CAA, and in early 2013 became a deputy commander of the Southern MD. After a very brief stint as First Deputy Commander, Chief of Staff of the Western MD, he will head the GOU.
Kartapolov’s wiki bio says he served as chief of an unidentified GOU directorate in 2009-2010.
But GOU chiefs of late still seem more “from the troops” than “born and bred” General Staff officers.
Russian Defense Policy 
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Col. Gen. Dvornikov for war crimes-instead of the Hero the Soviet Union Medal?
Hero of the Russian Federation you mean…yes, Russian strategy and tactics are reprehensible. Will there be punishment? Of course not. In today’s international system, strong states still do want they want, within what their conscience allows. In the Russian case, that’s alot. Moscow has used Syria as a weapons testing ground much like the USSR used the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. Will Russian efforts bring peace, reconciliation, or reconstruction to Syria? No. In the end, it’ll be a failure, but they’re not really concerned about that as long as their troops and arms get some real use and then sell abroad.