Yuri Baluyevsky

Yuri Nikolayevich Baluyevsky (born 9 January 1947) is a retired Russian general of the army who served as Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and First Deputy Minister of Defense from 2004 to 2008. He was also a deputy secretary of the Security Council of Russia from 2008 to 2012.

Baluyevsky joined the Soviet Army in 1966 and was a platoon and company commander before becoming a staff officer in 1974. He spent the rest of his career in staff positions, serving as an operations staff officer for the 28th Army, the 6th Army, and the Leningrad Military District. In 1982 he was assigned to the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff and spent the next twenty years working there, and was also chief of staff of the Russian forces in Georgia from 1993 to 1995. He rose through the hierarchy of the directorate, leading it from 1996 to 2001, before becoming First Deputy Chief of the General Staff in 2001, and then Chief of the General Staff in 2004.

During the early presidency of Vladimir Putin he was tasked with conducting high level military negotiations that involved the United States, NATO, and China. Baluyevsky was also Chief of the Joint Staff of the CSTO from 2005 to 2006. As Chief of the Russian General Staff, he favored reorganizing the army into brigades and having the majority of troops be volunteer contract soldiers instead of conscripts. But in 2008 he opposed the efforts of new Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to implement major reforms in the Russian military command structure and their disagreements led to Baluyevsky stepping down. After that he was a member of the Security Council of Russia until 2012, and since 2005 has been on the board of directors of Almaz-Antey.