The General Staff promises

The head of the Main Operations Directorate - Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Andrei Tretyak, the Chief of the Main Staff - First Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Lieutenant General Sergei Skokov, the head of the electronic warfare department of the General Staff, Major General Oleg Ivanov, and other influential military leaders allegedly submitted their resignations. Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes about this on July 5, citing its sources.

The publication notes that it is mainly young promising generals, a little over or a little under 50 years old, who want to resign. They have a good military education, merit, combat and staff experience, occupy key positions in the Ministry of Defense, and are included in the presidential reserve. Nezavisimaya also recalls that the leadership of the Main Operational Directorate has been replaced for the third time in the last four years.

One of the high-ranking officers, on condition of anonymity, told the newspaper that, according to the opinion widespread in the army, the reason for the generals to resign was dissatisfaction with the way the Chief of the General Staff, Army General Nikolai Makarov, was carrying out army reform. Thus, the newspaper's source dispels the existing idea that Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov is to blame for the current troubles of the Russian army. It is because of Makarov, according to Nezavisimaya’s interlocutor, “The Armed Forces are in some kind of temporary, experimental state, living according to some projects, according to unapproved governing documents.” A high-ranking representative of the armed forces actually accused Makarov of the fact that the combat readiness of Russian troops is not at all as fantastic as the Chief of the General Staff likes to say.

Meanwhile, the ministry denies information about the generals’ disagreement with how the reform is proceeding. The department's press service reported that three generals who hold high positions and are on the list of the presidential personnel reserve actually resigned, but for health reasons. While they all continue to perform their duties, they have not yet been examined by a military medical commission.

Military expert Vitaly Shlykov, in response to a request from a Daily Journal correspondent to comment on the Nezavisimaya Gazeta report, said that he doubted the reliability of the information published by it.