page_title: Valery Gerasimov
section_title: Appointment
hierarchical_section_title: Valery Gerasimov / Appointment
caption_attribution_description: English: Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., left, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks with Gen. Hulusi Akar of the Turkish army, center, and Gen. Valery Gerasimov of the Russian army in Antalya, Turkey, March 6, 2017. The three chiefs of defense are discussing their nations’ operations in northern Syria. (Dept. of Defense photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dominique A. Pineiro/Released)
context_page_description: Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov is a Russian General, the current Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, and first Deputy Defence Minister, replacing Nikolay Makarov. He was appointed by President Vladimir Putin on 9 November 2012.
  Gerasimov is the strategist alleged to have conceived the "Gerasimov doctrine" – combining military, technological, information, diplomatic, economic, cultural and other tactics for the purpose of achieving strategic goals. However, this was later retracted by the author of the original paper, Mark Galeotti, who claimed the doctrine doesn't exist.
context_section_description: Gerasimov was appointed Chief of General Staff following the dismissal of Defence Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov on 6 November 2012. The previous Chief of General Staff, Army General Nikolay Makarov, was seen as close to Serduykov and was seen by commentators as likely to be replaced by new Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu. It has been reported that Makarov resigned, but he was formally dismissed by President Vladimir Putin. Other changes were the dismissal of Alexander Sukhorukov from the position of First Deputy Defence Minister and his replacement by Colonel General Arkady Bakhin, formerly commander of the Western Military District. Aerospace Defence Forces commander Colonel General Oleg Ostapenko was also promoted to Deputy Defence Minister. He was promoted to the highest rank in the Russian Army, General of the Army as of 2014. 
  According to the Security Service of Ukraine, Gerasimov was in fact the general commander of all elements of Russian forces and also the pro-Russian insurgents during the disastrous Battle of Ilovaisk in 2014 where over 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed.
  On 15 September 2016, he and Turkish chief of staff General Hulusi Akar conducted a meeting on the future of Syria in the Ankara headquarter of the Turkish Armed Forces.
caption: Gerasimov (right), Joseph Dunford (left) and Hulusi Akar (middle) at a meeting to discuss their nations’ operations in northern Syria, 6 March 2017
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., left, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks with Gen. Hulusi Akar of the Turkish army, center, and Gen. Valery Gerasimov of the Russian army in Antalya, Turkey, March 6, 2017. The three chiefs of defense are discussing their nations\u2019 operations in northern Syria. (Dept. of Defense photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dominique A. Pineiro/Released)", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D810", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "NIKON D810 Ver.1.10", "Image DateTime": "2017:03:07 15:18:51", "Image Artist": "Dominique A. Pineiro", "Image ExifOffset": "224", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1030", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7614", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "500", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:03:07 07:38:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:03:07 07:38:03", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "790241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "1485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "38", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "39", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2000", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "16780511/8192", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "16780511/8192", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "38", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "3047148", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[24, 70, 14/5, 14/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8"}