Vladimir Boldyrev

Vladimir Anatolyevich Boldyrev (; born 5 January 1949) is a retired Russian general of the army who served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces from 2008 to 2010. His other major commands included the 6th Army, the Siberian Military District, the North Caucasus Military District, and the group of Russian forces deployed to fight the Russo-Georgian War.

Military career

Boldyrev was born on 5 January 1949 in Krasnoyarsky, Volgograd Oblast. He graduated the Moscow Higher Military Command School in 1971 to be commissioned as an officer, and initially served in the Belorussian Military District and the Central Group of Forces in Czechoslovakia. After graduating from the Frunze Military Academy in 1978 he became an operations staff officer on a field army staff. Between 1979 and 1985 Boldyrev was stationed in Mongolia, where he held roles at the regimental and division level. He was then the commander of a division in the Transbaikal Military District from 1985 to 1990, before attending the Russian General Staff Academy, which he graduated in 1992.

Boldyrev became the chief of staff of the 6th Army in the Leningrad Military District in 1992, and became the army commander in 1994. From September 1996 to December 1998 he was the first deputy commander of the Transbaikal Military District, and was also its chief of staff briefly from April to December 1998. At the end of that year, Boldyrev was appointed as first deputy commander and chief of staff of the North Caucasus Military District. In May 2001 he was made the commander of the Siberian Military District, and in December 2002 he was returned to the North Caucasus Military District, replacing Gennady Troshev as its commander. In July 2004 Boldyrev was appointed as commander of the Volga–Ural Military District. His reassignment took place a month after the June 2004 raid by Chechen militants into Nazran, Ingushetia, which resulted in 93 people killed. Boldyrev was among the several high-ranking military officials who were either removed or reassigned after this raid, with the other being the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Anatoly Kvashnin.

In early August 2008, Boldyrev was appointed as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, assuming command from Alexey Maslov. It was a personnel decision made by the new Minister of Defense, Anatoly Serdyukov. He was in that role during the Russo-Georgian War later that month, and announced that Russian forces had removed the Georgian army from Tskhinvali, to outside of the zone previously held by Russian peacekeepers. Boldyrev was in command of the group of Russian forces that was fighting in the war with Georgia, with his headquarters coordinating operations from Vladikavkaz. In September 2009, he announced that control over army aviation would be returned to the Ground Forces from the Russian Air Force.

Boldyrev was removed from his post and retired in January 2010, officially because of his age. State Duma deputy Viktor Ilyukhin criticized the decision of the defense minister to replace Boldyrev, saying that "in the Armed Forces there are very few generals who could command strategic operations. Boldyrev is a talented general, and has a lot of experience commanding forces."

Later life

After his retirement from active duty, he became a member of the Office of Inspectors General. When the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov and Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin publicly criticized Aleksandr Lapin, who was in command of the forces defeated during the 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive, Boldyrev told them that they did not have the right to do that, saying that only the president and defense minister did. Kadyrov responded to him by saying that he had been removed as the head of the North Caucasus Military District for not being capable, which Boldyrev said was not true.

In May 2024, after the general Ivan Popov was arrested on charges of fraud, Boldyrev commented that it was "very surprising," saying that he had known Popov to be a competent and capable commander, and that Popov would never have done such a thing.

Awards and decorations

* Order of Saint George, 2nd class
* Order of Military Merit

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boldyrev, Vladimir
Generals of the army (Russia)
1949 births
Living people
Frunze Military Academy alumni
Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia alumni
Commanders-in-chief of the Russian Army
Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Second Degree
Recipients of the Order of Military Merit (Russia)
Military personnel of the Russo-Georgian War