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Chief of General Staff Makarov to be relieved of his duties soon — source in General Staff

Colonel-General Valery Gerasimov will be appointed at this post

MOSCOW, November 8 (Itar-Tass) — Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff General Nikolai Makarov will be relieved of his post soon, Colonel-General Valery Gerasimov will be appointed at this post, a source in the Russian General Staff told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

“On Wednesday morning, newly appointed Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had a separate meeting in the Defence Ministry with Commander of the troops in the Central Military District Colonel-General Valery Gerasimov over his possible appointment at the post of the chief of the Russian General Staff,” the source said.

The defence minister will hold a meeting with the top military officials of the Russian Armed Forces to particularly consider personnel issues, the source said. All deputies of the defence minister, heads of main and central departments of the Defence Ministry, the commanders of the troops in the military districts and the fleets will participate in the meeting.

Valery Gerasimov was born on September 8, 1955 in Kazan. In 1973 he graduated from the Kazan Suvorov Military Academy, then the Kazan High Tank Command Academy, the Malinovsky Academy of Armoured Troops and the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. He passed all posts in the military career from the commander of the platoon to the deputy chief of the General Staff. He was appointed as commander of the troops in the Central Military District from the post of the deputy chief of the General Staff in 2012.