Konstantin Kobets

Konstantin Ivanovich Kobets (; 16 July 1939 – 30 December 2012) was a Russian army general. In early 1991 he was serving as Deputy Chief of the Soviet General Staff for communications.

Biography 
Born in Kiev.

 1970-1972 - deputy commander of a communications regiment
 1972-1974 - commander of a communications regiment of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
 1974-1976 - chief of communications 14th Guards Combined Arms Army Odessa Military District
 1978-1980 - Deputy Chief of Signal Troops Transbaikal Military District
 1980-1982 - Chief of Signal Troops Transbaikal Military District
 1982-1986 - Chief of Signal Troops - Deputy Chief of Staff High Command of the Far East.
 1986 - participant in the liquidation of the consequences of accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
 1986-1987 - First Deputy Chief of Communication Troops of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union
 August 1987 - March 1991 - head of Communication Troops of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union - deputy chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR; Colonel General (February 17, 1988)

In the spring of 1990, he made an official visit to People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

In 1990, he was elected as a people's deputy of the RSFSR from the city of Chekhov, Moscow Region. He headed a group of people's deputies of the RSFSR from the Armed Forces of the USSR.

On January 31, 1991, he was appointed Chairman of the RSFSR State Committee for Defense and Security. On May 5 of the same year, this State Committee was divided into the RSFSR State Committee for Defense Affairs and the KGB of the RSFSR.).

From May 17 to July 10, 1991 - Chairman of the State Committee of the RSFSR for Defence, who took office on July 10, 1991. Since July 11, 1991 Chairman of the State Committee of the RSFSR for Defence. When the second Government of Ivan Silaev was formed on July 30, 1991, this committee was renamed the State Committee of the RSFSR on Defence Issues. He was reappointed as chairman on August 19, however, on September 9 this decision was canceled.

The position of the Minister of Defence was temporarily established in the RSFSR on August 20, 1991 until the full restoration of the activities of the constitutional bodies of state power and administration of the USSR. On the same day Colonel General Konstantin Ivanovich Kobets was appointed Minister of Defence of the RSFSR, since he was the most high-ranking military leader who, from the first day of the events of August putsch, stood on the side of B. N. Yeltsin. On August 24, 1991, he was awarded the military rank of Army General.. Already on September 9, 1991, the position of the Minister of Defense of the RSFSR was abolished

On September 10, 1991, he was appointed State Councilor of the RSFSR for defense and a member of the State Council of the RSFSR, despite the fact that he was already a member of the council as well, Chairman of the State Committee on Defense Issues. From September to December 1991, simultaneously Chairman of the Committee for the preparation and implementation of military reform under the State Council USSR. On March 25, 1992, he was released from the post of State Counselor and placed at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief of the CIS Allied Forces, Air Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov..

On April 4, 1992, by order of the President of the Russian Federation No. 158-rp, the State Commission for the creation of the Ministry of Defense, Army and Navy of Russia was created. Advisor to the President Dmitry Volkogonov was appointed chairman of the commission], and deputies were Pavel Grachev, Andrey Kokoshin, K. I. Kobets and Yu. V. Skokov.

Since September 1992 - Chief Military Inspector of Armed Forces of the Russian Federation; at the same time since June 1993 - Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, and since January 1995 - Secretary of State - Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation.

Kobets supported then President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin during the August coup of 1991. From August 19 until September 9, 1991, Konstantin Kobets was Defense Minister of the RSFSR (albeit there was no ministry). This post was then abolished.

On May 18, 1997, he was removed from his post and dismissed from the Armed Forces and was arrested on charges of accepting a bribe and illegal possession of weapons. He was sentenced to two years in prison in 1997 for corruption and misuse of defense ministry funds. Before his arrest, he was often called one of the most likely candidates for the post of Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation. On the other hand, his name was constantly at the center of various corruption scandals. Communists and ultra-nationalists strongly disliked him for his adherence to the course of the President of the Russian Federation B. N. Yeltsin: in August 1991, he led the so-called defense of the “White House”, and in October 1993, on the contrary, he collected tankers to storm the White House. In 1998, he admitted his guilt and was released from custody on his own recognizance. In 2000, his case was dropped due to an amnesty, after which he declared the invalidity of his earlier admission of guilt.

He was chair of the Russian Government's military reform committee in late 1991. In that position he developed a plan for the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States Armed Forces. This plan was presented to a council of defence officials of the Soviet republics on 26–27 December 1991. However it was not adopted by the meeting and was superseded in any case by the effective breakup of the former Soviet Armed Forces among the former republics of the Soviet Union.

Death
He died at the age of 74 on 30 December 2012 in Moscow. He was buried on 2 January 2013 at the Troekurovskoye cemetery.

References 

1939 births
2012 deaths
Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
Military personnel from Kyiv
Army generals (Soviet Union)
Ukrainian emigrants to Russia
Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery
Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union alumni
Defenders of the White House (1991)
Deputy Defence Ministers of Russia