Shoigu Appoints Gerasimov to SMO Command
"Existential" war earns promotion to being worthy of RUMOD's undivided attention
Shoigu appointing Gerasimov to command the SMO links both of their fates more closely to the fate of the SMO. That’s “bullish” for the SMO.
You may recall that in September just as the wildly successful Ukrainian offensive in Kharkov hit, the trio of Putin, Shoigu and Gerasimov was actually in the Far East overseeing the Vostok 2022 military drills.
Incredible. As Ukrainians fell on undermanned Russian positions, and took nearly 10,000 sq kilometers in just 6 days Putin and his top two defense guys were in the Pacific playing wargames and keeping badly needed manpower from the front to do it.
Fixing so much of the attention on Vostok 2022 in the middle of the war wasn’t just to falsely signal that everything was under control in Ukraine. But also to signal that the SMO was just one of a number of Moscow’s security preoccupations.
Well with the appointment of Gerasimov to command the SMO that nonsense stops.
No more pretending that RUMOD has a bunch of other things to handle in addition to the SMO that are collectively just as important.
This is one more in a series of moves in Moscow that changes the posture from pretending that SMO isn’t even all that important to admitting that they must either produce at least minimal results or their own fate will be in question.
Surovikin is still around as the deputy SMO commander (as well as the Aerospace Forces commander) but Gerasimov also brings in two additional deputy commanders. Salyukov who commands the Ground Army, and Kim who is Deputy Chief of the General Staff, aka Gerasimov’s deputy as armed forces commander.
In other words, this isn’t a case of Surovikin geting demoted, this is a case of the SMO getting promoted. It’s moving from command by just some general to command by country’s highest-ranking general who is also the Deputy Defense Minister.
When Ukrainians concluded the Kharkov offensive Time Magazine wrote about Ukraine’s overall commander Zaluzhny:
But Zaluzhny also respected and admired the institutions of his Russian counterparts. In his office, he keeps the collected works of General Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian armed forces, who is 17 years his senior.
“I was raised on Russian military doctrine, and I still think that the science of war is all located in Russia,” Zaluzhny says. “I learned from Gerasimov. I read everything he ever wrote … He is the smartest of men, and my expectations of him were enormous.”
"In general, all these appointments indicate that the SMO is becoming the main concern of all the power structures of Russia. Not ‘one of’, but the main one."
Lost in the Kharkov offensive September 6 to 12:
There are rumours, at the moment, of Ukraine assembling two entire army corps in Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk, in view of a big offensive in the Spring. According to the grapevine, at the moment they are conducting NATO training with NATO weapons.
Any confirmation from the blogosphere?
"Fixing so much of the attention on Vostok 2022 in the middle of the war wasn’t just to falsely signal that everything was under control in Ukraine. But also to signal that the SMO was just one of a number of Moscow’s security preoccupations"
Marko at his best here - \macro\visioning the 'project' from just the right distance to see 'the forest & the trees! Hiding in the underbrush is a further salient point however. Not only was Vostok "the end of the pretend" re SMO... it was the end to all pretense of Imperial Rus, the colossus which stretched from the edges of Alaska to the borders of Germany.
A severely 'hunched' and shuffling creature is born in it's stead - a Golem-like figure which debuted at that infamous meeting in Central Asia where the formerly fearful dwarf kings of the stans started laughing at the "bear-rider" & his ill-fitting robes. Now even 'The Chef" imitates them in insolent display... whilst Girkin recons ahead of him to see where 'the really real red lines' lay!
Not much longer till the bunker scene = an imaginary force called up for an imaginary "Battle of the Elbe" WHERE IS STEINER - GET ME STEINER ON ZEE PHONE!