Yuri Baluyevsky

Yuri Nikolayevich Baluievski (Russian Юрий Николаевич Балуевский, scientific transliteration Yuri Nikolaevich Baluevskij; born January 9, 1947 in Truskavets, Lviv region, now Ukraine) is a Russian officer. General of the Army was from July 2004 to June 2008 Chief of Staff of the Russian armed forces. Since 3 June 2008, he is Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council of Russia.

He attended the Army Military School in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg ) and the Military Academy "MW Frunze ". He was platoon leader and company commander, a member of the Operations Department of the Army Staff in the Belorussian Military District. In 1974, he served as chief operating officer of the Department of the Army Staff of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany ( GSFG ). In 1979 he joined the Operations Department of the Army Staff in the Leningrad Military District.

1982 Baluievski joined the Operational Headquarters of the General Staff of the GSFG, attended the Military Academy of the General Staff. He was chief of staff and deputy head of the group of Russian forces in the South Caucasus in 1993. In 1995 he became Head of Administration and Vice Chief of the Operational Headquarters of the General Staff. In 1997 he was promoted to Chief of the Operational Headquarters of the General Staff and Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Russian armed forces.

Baluievski was appointed by President Vladimir Putin to the Chief of Staff of the Russian armed forces on 19 July 2004. During his tenure, he should pursue the modernization of the military apparatus. After several internal conflicts with Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov Baluievski 2008 was replaced as Chief of Staff by Nikolai Makarov Jegorowitsch and transferred to the post of Deputy Chairman of the National Security Council, a position he held until January 2012.

Baluievski is known for pithy comments. In 2001 he declared that there were only 1000 fighters for an independent Chechnya. All the other had been killed by the Russian army. A week later he was corrected by the Russian FSB: Actually there were 5,000 Chechen fighters.