Valery Gerasimov

Valery Vasilevich Gerasimov (Вале́рий Васи́льевич Гера́симов; born 8 September 1955) is the current Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, and first Deputy Defence Minister, replacing Nikolay Makarov. He was appointed by President Vladimir Putin on 9 November 2012.

Education
Born in Kazan, he graduated from the Kazan Suvorov Military School (1971-1973), the Kazan Higher Tank Command School named after the Supreme Soviet of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1973-1977), the Malinovsky Military Academy of Armored Forces (1984-1987), and the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia (1995-1997).

Commands
After graduating from the Kazan Higher Tank Command School Gerasimov was the commander of a platoon, company and battalion of the Eastern Military District. Later he was chief of staff of a tank regiment and then of a motorized rifle division in the Baltic Military District. From 1993 to 1995 he was the commander of a motorized infantry division in the North Western Force.

After he graduated from the General Staff's academy he was First Deputy Army Commander in the Moscow Military District and commander of the 58th Army in the North Caucasus Military District during the Second Chechen War. His involvement in the arrest of Yury Budanov led to praise from journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

In 2006 he became commander of Leningrad Military District and moved to be the commander of Moscow Military District in 2009 and Central Military District in April 2012. On 23 December 2010 he became deputy Chief of the General Staff. He ran the Victory Day parades in Moscow for four times: 2009 to 2012.

Appointment
Gerasimov was appointed Chief of General Staff following the dismissal of Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov on 6 November 2012. The previous Chief of General Staff, Army General Nikolay Makarov, was seen as close to Serduykov and was seen by commentators as likely to be replaced by new Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu. It has been reported that Makarov resigned, but he was formally dismissed by President Vladimir Putin. Other changes were the dismissal of Alexander Sukhorukov from the position of First Deputy Defence Minister and his replacement by Colonel General Arkady Bakhin, formerly commander of the Western Military District. Aerospace Defence Forces commander Colonel General Oleg Ostapenko was also promoted to Deputy Defence Minister. He was Currently Promoted as the General of the Army as of 2013.

Awards
Gerasimov has been awarded a number of medals including Order of Military Merit, Merit for Motherland (4th grade) and Merit for Motherland in the USSR Armed Forces (3rd grade).

Personal life
He is married and has a son.