Yuri Baluyevsky

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Yuri Baluyevsky
Baluyevsky in 2006
Birth nameYury Nikolayevich Baluyevsky
Born (1947-01-09) 9 January 1947 (age 77)
Truskavets, Lviv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Allegiance Soviet Union
 Russia
Service/branch Soviet Army
 Russian Ground Forces
Years of service1966–2007
RankArmy General
Commands heldGeneral Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
AwardsOrder of Merit for the Fatherland, Order of Military Merit, Order for Service to the Homeland
Other workMember of board of directors at Almaz-Antey

General of the Army Yuri Nikolayevich Baluyevsky (Russian: Юрий Николаевич Балуевский; born 9 January 1947) is a retired Russian Ground Forces officer who served as the First Deputy Minister of Defense and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, from July 2004 to June 2007.

Baluyevsky joined the Soviet Army in 1966 and was a platoon and company commander before becoming a staff officer in 1974. He spent the rest of his career in staff positions, serving as an operations staff officer for the 28th Army, the 6th Army, and the Leningrad Military District. From the early 1980s until the dissolution of the Soviet Union he was assigned to the Main Operations Directorate of the Soviet General Staff. In the 1990s he rose through the hierarchy of the General Staff of the Russian Federation before becoming the Chief of the General Staff in 2004.

Early life and education

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Yuri Baluyevsky was born on 9 January 1947 in Truskavets, Lviv Oblast, in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic.[1] His grandfather served in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I,[2] and his father served in the Soviet-Finnish War and World War II.[3] He was stationed in western Ukraine at the time that Baluyevsky was born.[2] In the 1950s his family moved to the town of Kirillov, Vologda Oblast, in the Russian Soviet Republic. Baluyevsky was interested in military history and read books by Georgy Zhukov. From 1965 to 1966 he briefly worked as a teacher before joining the Soviet Army.[3]

He studied at the Leningrad Higher Combined Arms Command School starting in 1966 and graduated in 1970.[3] His military education also includes graduating from the Frunze Military Academy in 1980 and the General Staff Academy in 1990.[1]

Military career

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From 1970 to 1974 he served a motorized rifle platoon and company commander in a tank division of the 28th Army, in the Belorussian Military District, before becoming a staff officer in the operations department of that army's staff.[1][4][5] After 1974 he spent the rest of his career as a staff officer.[6] After serving in Belarus, Baluyevsky was assigned to the Leningrad Military District in the same capacity, first as an operations officer on the 6th Army staff before being the senior officer in the operations directorate of the military district staff.[1][5]

Baluyevsky with U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, 2002

From 1982 to 1993, Baluyevsky served at the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff, where one of his assignments was to be an assistant to Soviet Deputy Minister of Defense Colonel General Vladislav Achalov.[5] In 1993, during the War in Abkhazia, he became the chief of staff and the deputy commander of the Group of Forces of the Transcaucasus.[1][6] He served in that position until June 1995, when he became the Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff, and in August 1997 he became the Chief of the Main Operations Directorate – First Deputy Chief of the General Staff.[1] He was serving in that role when the Kosovo War started in early 1999 and Russia was to be excluded from taking part in the peacekeeping mission there. In May 1999 Baluyevsky ordered the Russian units of the Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina to secretly prepare to enter Kosovo. This led to the incident at Pristina airport between Russian and NATO troops.[7]

On 27 July 2001, the president of Russia appointed Baluyevsky as the First Deputy Chief of the General Staff.[1] In January 2002 he traveled to Washington, D.C. and met with U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Douglas Feith, for negotiations on the reduction of nuclear warheads in the arsenals of both countries.[8] At a press conference in early 2002 Baluyevsky claimed that Iran has nuclear weapons.[9] He said that "Iran does have nuclear weapons. These are non-strategic nuclear weapons. ... As for the danger of Iran's attack on the United States, the danger is zero."[10]

On 27 May 2002 he attended a ceremony marking the opening of the NATO Military Liaison Mission in Moscow with the Chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Guido Venturoni.[11] In February 2004 Baluyevsky announced that Russia successfully tested a spacecraft in the process of developing hypersonic weapons.[12]

Chief of the General Staff

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Baluyevsky (left) with President Dmitry Medvedev and his successor as the Chief, Army General Nikolai Makarov, 2008

In July 2004, he became the chief of staff of the Armed Forces and first deputy defense minister. Following the controversial tenure of General Anatoly Kvashnin, General Baluyevsky was seen as a lower-profile officer with good strategic planning skills, according to the Jamestown Federation.

Baluyevsky was promoted to General of the Army on 22 February 2005, and by June he was appointed CSTO Chief of Staff, echoing Warsaw Pact practice with Soviet and now Russian CGSs taking mirror positions within the alliance organisations.

On 19 January 2008, Baluyevsky warned that Russia was ready to use force, including pre-emptively and with nuclear weapons, to defend itself against the potential threats from "international terrorism or countries seeking global or regional hegemony."[13]

He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Almaz-Antey since July 2005.

Traditionally thought of as a commanding officer with good strategic planning skills, Baluyevsky expressed strong criticism over some controversial issues in Russia's military policy, including the relocation of the Navy Headquarters from Moscow to St. Petersburg and the role and place of the General Staff in the management of the Russian military.[14] The Chief of General Staff said in a public forum that the move was unnecessary.

On 2 June 2007, Baluyevsky stepped down as Chief of the General Staff, and moved to the position in the Security Council of the Russian Federation. He was succeeded by General of the Army Nikolai Makarov, former Chief of Armaments & Deputy Minister of Defense.[15]

Honours and awards

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Назначения и отставки" [Appointments and resignations]. Krasnaya Zvezda (in Russian). 20 July 2004.
  2. ^ a b Gavrilov, Yuri; Chernyak, Igor (1 November 2005). "Юрий Балуевский раскрыл военные тайны" [Yuri Baluyevsky revealed military secrets]. Rossiyskaya Gazeta (in Russian).
  3. ^ a b c "Балуевский Юрий Николаевич" [Baluyevsky Yuri Nikolayevich]. Official Portal of the Vologda Oblast Government (in Russian). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  4. ^ "БАЛУЕВСКИЙ Юрий Николаевич" [BALUYEVSKY Yuri Nikolayevich]. CSTO (in Russian).
  5. ^ a b c Stukalin, Alexander; Lukin, Mikhail (21 February 2005). "Что такое современная армия России" [What is the modern army of Russia?]. Kommersant (in Russian).
  6. ^ a b "Балуевский, Юрий" [Baluyevsky, Yuri]. Lenta.ru (in Russian).
  7. ^ "Russia showed its character" [Россия показала свой характер]. DOSAAF News (in Russian). 30 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Russia, U.S. begin warhead talks". CNN. 15 January 2002.
  9. ^ Martin, Lionel (2 July 2004). "Russia Continues To Turn A Blind Eye Toward Iran's Nuclear Program". Jamestown Foundation.
  10. ^ Woolsey, R. James; Graham, William R.; Cooper, Henry; Ermarth, Fritz; Pry, Peter Vincent (25 September 2015). "Iran Deal's Premise Is Wrong They Likely Have a Bomb". Roll Call.
  11. ^ "Fifth anniversary of NATO-Russia special relationship - a turning point". NATO. 27 May 2002.
  12. ^ "Russian military touts its anti-anti-missile system". NBC News. 19 February 2004.
  13. ^ Russia warns of nuclear defence. BBC News, 19 January 2008.
  14. ^ RIA Novosti and http://nvo.ng.ru/forces/2008-03-28/1_afront.html
  15. ^ Начальник Генерального штаба Вооруженных Сил РФ – первый заместитель Министра обороны РФ

References

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Military offices
Preceded by Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
2004–2008 		Succeeded by
Preceded by First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
2001–2004 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chief of the Main Operations Directorate – First Deputy Chief of the General Staff
1997–2001 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Directorate
1995–1997 		Succeeded by
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