Paul Goble
Staunton, July 18 – Since the beginning of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine, “a minimum” of 12 Russian generals have died, most near the front or as the result of rocket attacks on their headquarters but at least two killed in Moscow itself, an “abnormal” situation and one that suggests for the Kremlin, generals too are cannon fodder, Sergey Auslender says.
The Israeli military expert of Russian Jewish origin says that the large number of such deaths reflects both the fact that commanders have to be close to the front lines to do their jobs and that Moscow fails to devote the kind of effort other governments do to protect these most experienced military leaders (pointmedia.io/story/6878d280e25aea416748a847).
To highlight just how anomalously high the Russian numbers are, Auslender notes that during the 20 years of the American war in Vietnam, the US lost only seven generals, “and more than half of these died in automobile or airplane crashes” and not as a result of direct military attacks.
Poor command and control arrangements in the Russian army mean that generals often must be far closer to the front lines than is the case in other armies, and shortcomings in Russia’s counter-intelligence network prevent the army from protecting even generals who remain in the rear, the analyst says.
Auslender points to two other reasons why the losses among Russian generals is so high: the Russian military has far more experience in internal repression than in fighting a war with foreigners and “Ukrainians are physically indistinguishable from Russians,” something that makes it far more difficult to defend against them.
But it nonetheless is surprising, given what is true in other militaries, that the Russian army doesn’t provide the kind of personal guards for its senior commanders that would ensure their survival. As a result, Moscow is losing some of the people who might best be able to help it achieve its goals.
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