SITE MAP	Unclassified	12 September 2002
FBIS/Central Eurasia Program Directory of RF Defense Related Agencies and Personnel
Main Index General Staff Districts & Fleets Branches of Service Related Agencies Intell/Security Agencies Defense Industries Documents Biographical Index Unit Register	MAIN OPERATIONS DIRECTORATE
	Chief (Deputy Chief of Armed Forces General Staff) --- RUKSHIN, Aleksandr, Lt-Gen Appointed, (Vremya Novostey in Russian 31 Aug 01 ); (Nezavisimaya Gazeta 6 Mar 02). [Previous Chief was BALUYEVSKIY, Yuriy, Col-Gen (Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey 20 January 2000), who continued to be First Deputy Chief of the General Staff (Vremya Novostey in Russian 31 Aug 01 ).]

Deputy Chief --- ROMANCHENKO, Vitaliy, Lt-Gen (генерал-лейтенант Виталий Романченко) (Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey 29 Feb 00; Novaya Gazeta, 9 Sep 02).
Deputy Chief --- POZDNYAKOV, Anatoliy, Major-General (,<grani.ru> 18 Sep 01).

• [[Rukshin's] unclassified speech at the Ministry of Defense military history conference "60-Years Since the Beginning of the Great Patriotic War: Lessons and Conclusions on Preventing Wars and Maintaining the Armed Forces in the Needed Readiness Under Modern Conditions", which took place in June, gives several ideas about the new GOU chief's views. Ultimately, our mutual relations with the surrounding world depend largely on how Gen Rukshin plans in his position "to prevent wars". And judging by everything, the new GOU chief has a rather gloomy, and even apocalyptical view of the developing international situation. In his opinion, the analogy with the end of the 1930s is absolutely obvious. But only with this difference -- the direct threat to Russia does not proceed so much from Germany as from her allies. "In recent years one cannot but notice the dependence which has appeared between the economic growth and military might of the NATO countries headed by the United States and the growing trend toward the use of forceful methods to solve conflicts with their participation." Gen Rukshin stated: "In assessing the state of the Armed Forces as a result of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya, like after the Finnish campaign of 1939, we have established that the troops are weak and their relative readiness is only at a strategic level of deterrence. And finally, as in the prewar period, the flames of war are blazing in the Balkans, the traditional 'cradle of war' for Europe" (Vremya Novostey in Russian 31 Aug 01 ).]
• Lieutenant-General Anatoly Pozdnyakov, "deputy chief of a subdepartment," died in an MI-8 Hip helicopter crash in Chechnya (Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey 17 Sep 01 ).