Valery Gerasimov was born in the city of Kazan (east of Moscow) on September 8, 1955. After pocketing several diplomas in military schoolshe took command of a platoon, a company and a mechanized infantry battalion of the Far East Military District.
Later, he became chief of staff of a tank regiment, then of a motorized rifle division in the Baltic Military District. From 1993 to 1995, he was the commander of the 144th Guards Motorized Rifle Division in the Baltic Military District, then the North-West Group of Forces.
After graduating from the General Staff Academy, he became the first deputy commander of the army of the Moscow Military District.
Successive appointments
During the Second Chechen WarValery Gerasimov was commander of the 58th Army in the North Caucasus Military District between February 2001 and March 2003.
The BBC believes that during his time in Chechnya, he personally participated in the arrest of Yury Budanov, a colonel in the Russian army who was subsequently convicted of the murder of a young Chechen girl. This led journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a vocal critic of the Chechen conflict and murdered in 2006to describe it as “a man who knew how to preserve the honor of an officer” during the war.
In 2006, he took command of the Leningrad Military District. Three years later, he was appointed commander of the Moscow Military District. On December 23, 2010, he rose again in rank and became Deputy Chief of the General Staff.
In 2012, he was appointed Commander of the Central Military District and he led the annual “Victory Day” parade in Red Square between 2009 and 2012.