Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Federal Service for Technical and Export Control Federal Service for Defence Contracts Federal Agency for Special Construction Federal Agency for the supply of arms, military and special equipment and material supplies
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (
Russian: Министерство обороны Российской Федерации; MOD) is the governing body of the
Russian Armed Forces. The
President of Russia is the
Commander-in-Chief of the forces and directs the activity of the ministry. The
Minister of Defence exercises day-to-day administrative and operational authority over the forces.[2] The
General Staff of the Armed Forces executes the instructions and orders of the president and the defence minister.
[The] structure [...] does not imply
military subordination to civilian authority in the Western sense [...]. The historical tradition of military command is considerably different in Russia. The
tsars were educated as officers, and they regularly wore military uniforms and carried military rank.
Stalin always wore a military uniform, and he assumed the title
generalissimo. Even General Secretary
Leonid I. Brezhnev [...] appointed himself general of the army, and he encouraged portraits of himself in full uniform. By tradition dating back to the tsars, the minister of defense normally is a uniformed officer. The
State Duma also seats a large number of
deputies who are active-duty military officers—another tradition that began in the
Russian imperial era. These combinations of military and civilian authority ensure that military concerns are considered at the highest levels of the Russian government.[3]
In March 2001,
Sergei Ivanov, previously secretary of the
Security Council of Russia, was appointed defence minister by President
Vladimir Putin, becoming Russia's first non-uniformed civilian defence minister.[4]
Putin called the personnel changes in Russia's security structures coinciding with Ivanov's appointment as defence minister "a step toward demilitarizing public life." Putin also stressed Ivanov's responsibility for overseeing military reform as defence minister. What Putin did not emphasise was Ivanov's long service within the
KGB and
FSB and his then rank of General-Lieutenant within the FSB. Such military and security agency associated men are known as
siloviki.
As of 2002 there were four living
Marshals of the Soviet Union. Such men are automatically Advisors to the Defence Minister. The Marshals alive at that time were
Viktor Kulikov,
Vasily Petrov,
Sergei Sokolov, a former Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union, and
Dmitri Yazov. Yazov was listed by the American analysts Scott and Scott in 2002 as a consultant to the (former 10th) Directorate for International Military Cooperation.[5]
Perhaps the first 'real' non-uniformed Defence Minister was
Anatoliy Serdyukov, appointed in February 2007. Serdyukov was a former Tax Minister with little siloviki or military associations beyond his two years' military service.
Structure
The Ministry of Defence is managed by a collegium chaired by the Defence Minister and including the deputy Defence Ministers, heads of Main Defence Ministry and General Staff Directorates, and the commanders of the Joint Strategic Commands/Military Districts, the three Services, and three branches, who together form the principal staff and advisory board of the Minister of Defence.
The executive body of the Ministry of Defence is the
General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which is headed by the
Chief of the General Staff. U.S. expert
William Odom said in 1998 that 'the Soviet General Staff without the MoD is conceivable, but the MoD without the General Staff is not.'[6] Russian General Staff officers exercise command authority in their own right. In 1996 the General Staff included fifteen main directorates and an undetermined number of operating agencies. The staff is organized by functions, with each directorate and operating agency overseeing a functional area, generally indicated by the organization's title.
Military Thought is the military-theoretical journal of the Ministry of Defence, and
Krasnaya Zvezda its daily newspaper.
First Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation – Active State Advisor of the Russian Federation, 1st Class
Ruslan Tsalikov (since 24 December 2015)
Deputy Minister(s) of Defence:
State Secretary – Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation – General of the Army (Retired)
Nikolay Pankov (since 13 September 2005)
Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for Organising Material-Technical Support for the Armed Forces) –
Colonel GeneralMikhail Mizintsev (since 24 September 2022)
Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for Organising Financial Support for the Armed Forces) – Active State Advisor of the Russian Federation, 1st Class
Tatiana Shevtsova (since 4 August 2010)
Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation – Supervisor of the Apparatus of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation – Colonel General
Yuriy Sadovenko (since 7 January 2013)
Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for the Development of the Technical Basis for the Management System and Information Technology) – General of the Army
Pavel Popov (since 7 November 2013)
Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for Organising Property Management, Quartering of Troops (Forces), Housing, and Medical Support for the Armed Forces) – Active State Advisor of the Russian Federation, 2nd Class
Timur Ivanov (since 23 May 2016)
Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for Organising International Military and Military-Technical Cooperation) – Colonel General
Alexander Fomin (since 31 January 2017)
Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for Organising Military-Technical Support for the Armed Forces) – Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation, 1st Class
Aleksey Krivoruchko [
ru] (since 13 June 2018)
Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for Combat Training) – Colonel General
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov (since 8 July 2019)
The
Office of Inspectors General of the Ministry of Defence was established in 2008, consisting of around thirty retired senior officers. The main task of the office is "to promote the organization of combat and operational training of troops, the construction and further development of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the development of the theory and history of military art, and the education of personnel."[8] It is the successor to the
Soviet Armed Forces's
Group of Inspectors General, which was dissolved in 1992.[8]
Outline structure 2004
An outline structure of the Ministry of Defence includes the groupings below, but this structure was in transition when it was recorded in 2004, with several deputy minister posts being abolished:[9]
Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation