Why Giving Ukraine Command To Top Russian General Is Not Vote of Confidence

Certainly can't blame Putin... So given the rate at which Russian generals are being killed in Ukraine - 10 and counting - the message to General Valeriy Gerasimov, Chief of the Russian General Staff (usually a guy who never ventures outside his office except for photo ops) is 'fix this or we'll give the Ukrainians your location and have a nice funeral for you even as you are blamed for the fiasco.' 

Good scapegoats are so useful. JL 

Eliot Cohen reports in Twitter, image, EurasiaNet:

If it is true that General Gerasimov is assuming direct command of combat operations in Ukraine maybe he is not the reincarnation of Suvorov, Zhukov, etc. but a guy who has been the top staff job for over a decade. And things are going badly. Maybe very badly. One cannot blame the Boss for having launched this incredibly stupid war that will leave Russia weakened, isolated, with a stronger and larger NATO on its doorstep, particularly if you lose it to those Ukrainian peasants! So you send the Chief of the General Staff to the front with the message, “Fix this or don’t come home.” You now have a really good person to blame. If it is true that General Gerasimov is assuming direct command of combat operations in Ukraine from a forward headquarters there are, as ever, two possibilities.

 

The first is that as the Russians launch the decisive maneuver(s) of the war, they want their very best field commander to complete these heroic tasks, orchestrating fire and maneuver, land air and sea as only a superb field commander can. And obviously, he’s the best!

 

The second is that maybe he is not the reincarnation of Suvorov, Zhukov, etc. but a guy who has been the top staff job for over a decade. And things are going badly. Maybe very badly. Or at least potentially very badly.

 

One cannot blame the Boss for having launched this incredibly stupid war that will leave Russia weakened, isolated, with a stronger and larger NATO on its doorstep, particularly if you lose it to those Ukrainian peasants! So you send the Chief of the General Staff to the front with the message, “Fix this or don’t come home.” You now have a really good person to blame (nobody has ever heard of Dvornikov anyway).

 

And at this point, you’re not worried about a successful general launching a coup.…because this thing may be an epic disaster. So you need a really good scapegoat. As always truth may well lie somewhere in between, but I bet on #2. No reason to think Gerasimov is, in fact, likely to be a skilled theater commander plus issues

@WarintheFuture

points out.