Martial arts teacher

General Shamanov again received a post in the Ministry of Defense

There is a new head of the Main Directorate of Combat Training and Troop Service in the Russian Armed Forces . Advisor to the Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Vladimir Shamanov, was appointed to this position. Yesterday morning he signed a contract with the military department, and a little later the document was endorsed by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. Shamanov replaced Lieutenant General Alexander Lukin in this post, who, according to military gradation, is still “at the disposal” of the Minister of Defense.

The new appointee yesterday opened up about the nature of the “battles” for which he intends to prepare units: the unstable situation in Afghanistan , tension in relations between Russia and Georgia, the deployment of a global US missile defense system in the western strategic direction. Although a year ago, the general argued that the American missile defense system was “a pure bluff, a trial balloon launched by Washington in order to find out the reaction of the Russian leadership.” New position means new thoughts.

The new head of the Main Directorate is not planning any major personnel changes. In the strategic plan, all combat training activities will be aimed at further increasing the combat capabilities of the army and navy, which have been growing in recent years. So that potential enemies of Russia, according to Mr. Shamanov, “do not have the slightest desire to look at it as a country that is unable to defend itself.” General Shamanov intends to demonstrate these capabilities openly. Other priorities include reviving the officer corps, strengthening combat readiness units, and completing the transition to contract recruitment.

Vladimir Shamanov is a determined man. Once, as he himself admitted, he had already written a letter of resignation because he did not agree with what was happening in the army. This was in 2000. During the years of governorship in the Ulyanovsk region, Vladimir Shamanov somewhat lost the general’s assertiveness, and the years in Moscow, with its ineradicable Byzantineism, completely taught the gallant heir of General Ermolov to sit on two chairs. He seemed to oppose the law on the monetization of benefits for military personnel and military pensioners, but at the same time justified the government’s actions in this direction. In 2004, Mr. Shamanov suspended his membership in United Russia , and this year he is running for the State Duma on its list in Volgograd.

Vladimir Shamanov turned 50 years old in February of this year. He is a graduate of the Higher Military Airborne School, and also graduated from two academies - the combined arms academies named after. Frunze and the General Staff. Participated in hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, in the first and second Chechen campaigns. Then he commanded first an airborne division, then a group of troops of the Ministry of Defense, and then the United Group of Forces in the North Caucasus. The Chechen villages of Bamut and Tsentoroy, Dargo and Vedeno were taken by troops under the command of General Shamanov. In 1995 he was wounded, but remained in combat formation. Shamanov - Hero of Russia, Candidate of Sociological Sciences.

From 2000 to 2004 he was the governor of the Ulyanovsk region. Then he was actually removed from his post (including for attempts to obtain a pardon for Colonel Budanov , convicted of the brutal murder of a Chechen girl) and was sent as assistant to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov on social protection issues for military personnel. Since March 2006, he has been an adviser to the Minister of Defense on social protection of military personnel and military pensioners. At the same time, Mr. Shamanov is the chairman of the interdepartmental commission on prisoners of war, internees and missing persons.

The return of Vladimir Shamanov to the Ministry of Defense in one of the key areas confirms the version of Vremya Novostey, expressed in the issue dated September 18, 2007: under a purely civilian Minister of Defense, not cabinet workers will be appointed to the military department, but generals who know how and want to fight. A truly combat general, Airborne Forces commander Vladimir Kolmakov, has already been appointed to the post of First Deputy Minister of Defense. We can say with a high degree of confidence that such an appointment will not be the last, our newspaper predicted then, naming Vladimir Shamanov among the possible candidates. And so it happened.

Nikolay POROSKOV