As one general broke the border

Who is Colonel General Alexander Lapin, who allegedly dismissed the Interdepartmental Council for the Protection of the Kursk Region in the spring

The source of The Wall Street Journal in the Russian special services said that a few months before the APU on the Kursk region in the spring of 2024, Colonel General Alexander Lapin dismissed the interdepartmental council for the protection of the region. This decision could create a gap in Russian defense. What is known about General Lapina, who has become a target more than once for criticism?

Loose advice

According to the source of The Wall Street Journal, the Interdepartmental Council coordinated the army and special services in the Kursk region. Through this body, Lapin allegedly stated that only the military has forces and means to protect the Russian border.

When the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region began, the Russian law enforcement agencies that remained without a single management center began to act chaotic and inefficiently. Also between the departments - the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB and the Ministry of Defense - the struggle for power began. The Wall Street Journal recalls that the Armed Forces of Ukraine in September 2022 were able to free a significant territory in the northeast of Ukraine due to the fact that the Russian military, subordinated to Lapina, did not create fortified positions.

The source of Novo-Europe in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is convinced that the decisions of Alexander Lapin would not be enough to dissolve the coordination body. Indeed, the interdepartmental council, in addition to the military, included employees of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the border service. “Lapin had no authority to dissolve such advice,” says our interlocutor. - He could, of course, lobble the liquidation of the authorities. But to directly stop his work would not be in his power. ”

Group "Center"

Alexander Lapin was born in Kazan on January 1, 1964. In 1988 he graduated from the Kazan Higher Tank Command School, in 1997 - the Military Academy of Armored Troops named after Marshal of the Soviet Union R. Ya. Malinovsky in Moscow, in 2009 - the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia.

Since 2009, Lapin served as deputy commander of the 58th Army. In April 2012, he was appointed commander of the 20th Guards Combined Arms of the Western Military District. In 2017, he served as chief of staff of the troops in Syria. In September 2017, he was appointed head of the combined -arms Academy of the Armed Forces of Russia. Then he headed the Central Military District. In 2018-2019, he was the head of the group of troops in Syria. With the beginning of a full -scale invasion of Ukraine, he began to command the military units of the Center forces groups.

Colonel General Alexander Lapin drew attention after he awarded Zhukov’s medal of his son, Lieutenant Colonel Denis Alexandrovich Lapin, who commanded Sumy and Chernigov, a failed attack on Ukrainian cities. In early May 2022, journalists of the Air Force noticed that on the day the Star Channel was released on the Star channel, the Russian Army retreated from the Chernihiv and Kyiv directions.

On July 4, 2022, it became known about the decision of Vladimir Putin to assign Lapin the title of Hero of Russia.

Target for criticism

During a large -scale retreat of the Russian troops in the fall of 2022, Alexander Lapin became a target for criticism. Moreover, claims in the most acute form were presented to him very authoritative persons in Russia. So, on October 1, the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov wrote in his telegram channel that he could not be silent about what happened in the city of Krasny Liman.

“The defense of this site was led by the commander of the Central Military District, Colonel General Alexander Lapin,” Kadyrov said. -The same Lapin who received the star of the Hero of Russia for the capture of Lisichansk, although he was not there de facto there. The troops of the Western Military District were also subordinated to Lapin. Colonel General put up on all lines of the Liman direction of mobilized fighters with the LPR and other units, but did not provide them with the necessary connection, interaction and transportation of ammunition. Two weeks ago, the fact that our fighters could become a light target was personally reported to me by Major General Akhmat special forces commander, my dear brother Alaudinov. In turn, I informed about the danger of the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Valery Gerasimov. But the general assured me that Lapin did not doubt the general talent and does not believe that a retreat is possible in the Red Liman and his environs. ”

According to Ramzan Kadyrov, a week later Lapin transferred his headquarters to the city of Starobelsk, a hundred kilometers from his subordinates, and he settled in Lugansk.

The head of Chechnya asks the question: how can I quickly manage the units, being 150 km from them? Due to the lack of elementary military logistics, the Russian army then left several settlements and a large section of the territory.

“It's a shame that Lapin is a mediocrity,” Kadyrov continued. - And the fact that he is covered at the top of the leaders in the General Staff. If my will, I would have unclenched Lapin to the ordinary, would deprive the awards and with a machine gun in my hands would send my shame on the front line with blood. ”

The telegram channel close to the Wagner PMC, on October 26, 2022, published an Evgeny Prigozhin comment, which, among other things, said: “Many of those who are the so-called“ personnel ”have not learned anything but to click on the heels, to wear beautiful reports and write beautiful reports. And in this I cannot disagree with Ramzan Akhmatovich. Work is necessary on errors, including tactical and personnel. Let the plowmen work further for the sake of victory and minimizing losses, and loafers, Ramzan Akhmatovich know who I'm talking about, should immediately get out. ”

Ramzan Kadyrov answered Prigozhin, again scolding Alexander Lapin specifically: “As for Colonel General Lapin, I have been trying to establish a connection with him over the last few days. But my guys cannot find him. Shouldn't the commander be in his place and in touch with colleagues? .. For the whole day, the forces thrown there could not find Lapin’s fighters ... As a result, the demoralized fighters abandoned without communication, nutrition and ammunition were in the city. The milestone, flint, from where they are caught so far and returned to the advanced, but already failed almost to the second line. ”

Further, Kadyrov is interested in why there were no checks after the retreats of the units under the command of Lapin and who covers the general so well.

On the same days, Lapin got into another scandalous story. Trying to return to positions the unit who left them, the general threatened the murder of a subordinate officer. The Sota publication describes what happened from the words of an eyewitness: “We stood at the gas station, Colonel General Lapin came to us with his personal security.

Having learned the situation on the retreat, Colonel General Lapin put a gun to the head of the commander of the 5th company of Lieutenant B* demanding to go back, and also a lot of insults to us sounded from him (traitors, deserters and a lot of swear words). ”

It soon became known that Lapin was removed from the post of commander of the Center forces grouping.

“Lapin was not the only culprit in the retreat of forces subordinate to him in 2022,” says our interlocutor in the Russian military department. -Then Colonel General did not have enough resources to build the defense lines and saturate them with the necessary amount of personnel. The general himself was not seen in special cowardice. The headquarters then pushed everything away from the combat contact line due to the fact that the APU received long-range weapons and the Himars RSOs. ”

New take -off

In early January 2023, a source in the Ministry of Defense informed reporters that Colonel General Alexander Lapin was appointed chief of the Ground Staff of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces. And at the end of March 2024, Lapina was set by the commander of the Leningrad Military District. He also headed the North Troops group.

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Lapin was included in the sanctions lists of Great Britain, Ukraine and the European Union.

“If we talk about the Ukrainian operation in the Kursk region, Lapin removed reserves from this direction and transferred them to the Kharkov region, where Russia has been conducting an offensive from May 10 of this year,” says our source in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. - So not a single general, even, I can assume that the Supreme Commander -in -Chief could not have imagined that Ukrainians would decide to cross all the red lines and attack the territory of the Russian Federation. Lapin receives direct instructions from the chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, who, incidentally, is his patron and lobbyist of new appointments. It is thanks to Gerasimov Lapin still keeping afloat. ”