Kremlin Kontrol: Russia's Political-Military Reality

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This book contains charts, hundreds of footnotes, and appendices.

The Foreign Military Studies Office is a component of the US Army's Training and Doctrine Command G2 that does guidance-driven, unclassified research and analysis of the foreign perspective of the operational environment.

In 2016 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov instituted sweeping changes that have reorganized the country’s security forces and reestablished the nation’s military prowess. This study, Kremlin Kontrol, aims to describe how control over the security services and the military have hastened those changes. The study is divided into two parts. Part One, “The System of Civilian Control and Objective Thought,” has four chapters. Chapter One examines the development of a National Guard, which many view as Putin’s personal Palace Guard. Chapter Two looks at cadre changes and an internal control mechanism known as sistema. Chapter Three discusses Russian use of the media and cyber incursions during 2016 to manipulate foreign audiences. It also discusses Russia’s methodology of the lie. Chapter Four discusses Russia’s 31 December 2015 National Security Strategy, and the 2016 Information Security Doctrine and Science and Technology Strategy. Part Two, “The System of Military Control,” has five chapters. Chapter Five surveys the theory of Russian military thought, while Chapter Six discusses Russian officers’ views on the theory. Chapter Seven reviews five key speeches Gerasimov made over the past four years. Chapter Eight offers some new information on the Russian concept of reflexive control and its ability to manipulate situations. Chapter Nine examines Russia’s National Defense Management Center and how it was used during command and staff exercise Kavkaz-2016. Chapter Ten explores the rationale behind Russia’s campaign in Syria and how the fighting has progressed. Chapter Eleven, conclusions, explores the implications of Kremlin Kontrol. Appendix includes “Russia’s General Staff/Commanders on The War In Syria” and “Kruglov On Forecasting”.

The study supplements the author’s two prior studies, Recasting the Red Star and Military Strategy. It offers an understanding of Russia’s political-military control mechanisms today.

About the author: Timothy L. Thomas is a senior analyst at the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Mr. Thomas conducts extensive research and publishing in the areas of peacekeeping, information war, psychological operations, low intensity conflict, and political-military affairs. Mr. Thomas was a US Army foreign area officer who specialized in Soviet/Russian studies. His military assignments included serving as the Director of Soviet Studies at the United States Army Russian Institute in Garmisch, Germany; as an inspector of Soviet tactical operations under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; and as a brigade S-2 and company commander in the 82nd Airborne Division.