The only position in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation that can be occupied not by a serviceman, but by a civilian is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. After all, according to the Constitution of Russia, he is the president of the state, whom you can become even without having been in the army. He did not do military service, for example, the current President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Federation - retired State Security Colonel Vladimir Putin.
Where to serve?
Speaking about his attitude to the Armed Forces, Russian President Vladimir Putin always emphasizes that he was born and raised in the family of a front-line soldier. Therefore, he simply cannot disrespect the army of his country, not help it in all possible ways. In an interview, Putin admits that, like many boys, he dreamed of becoming a military man since childhood, mentally trying on the epaulettes of a pilot or a sailor. He stopped, in the end, on the career of a scout.
At one time, several well-known Russian politicians and senior officials of the country were conscripts. Among them are Gennady Zyuganov, Mikhail Kasyanov, Dmitry Kozak, Sergey Mironov, Vladislav Surkov, Igor Shuvalov.
For the sake of making his dream come true, yesterday's schoolboy was not afraid to even come to the reception room of the Leningrad KGB department and inquire about the possibility of getting into the state security organs. But I received the answer that before that you need to serve in the Soviet army at least two years. Another possible option for a 17-year-old boy was to enter a university with a military department, which trains lawyers or other specialists in demand in the State Security Committee.
From university to school
The future head of this department, offered by the KGB officer, made a simple choice in favor of studying. In 1970, Vladimir entered the law faculty of Leningrad University. And five years later, the young lawyer was admitted to the secretariat of the local KGB Directorate, becoming a lieutenant in state security. Which, in principle, can be considered the beginning of active military service.
The university graduate worked in the state security agencies for 15 years. Having managed during this time to graduate from the Higher School of the State Security Committee of the country in Moscow and learn in practice the complexity of work in counterintelligence and intelligence. Including in the most secret unit - the SVR, the Foreign Intelligence Service, which worked outside the Soviet Union, around the world.
Putin and Dresden
Finding himself, as he dreamed in childhood, a professional intelligence officer, Vladimir Putin continued his military education. After graduating from the Red Banner Institute named after one of his predecessors as the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, he, as knowing German, received a referral to the GDR in 1985. The so-called reconnaissance point located in Dresden became a new place of activity of Vladimir Putin.
In the German Democratic Republic, Soviet counterintelligence officer Vladimir Putin was promoted twice. That was considered in such a serious organization as the State Security Committee of the USSR, an analogue of the assessment "excellent".
Over the five years spent in East Germany, the counterintelligence officer Putin showed himself so well that he received the rank of lieutenant colonel, the position of deputy head of the department, and was also awarded the military medal "For Distinguished Service to the National People's Army of the GDR." Another "service" round of the officer Putin's career began in Russian times.
FSB Director
In July 1998, Vladimir Putin, by that time one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg administration, received an offer from the country's President Boris Yeltsin to head his own department. By that time, it was once again renamed - the FSB, the Federal Security Service. And a little later he became the secretary of the country's Security Council. However, Colonel Putin did not stay in the FSB for a long time. In August of the following year, he was appointed chairman of the Russian government.
On the last day of 1998, Putin became acting president. Finally, on March 26, 2000, he was first elected as the head of state. At the same time, he received the accompanying post of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of the country.
Viktor Chernomyrdin is the only one of the four Supreme Commanders-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces who have served in the army. In the late 1950s, he spent three years as an airfield technician in an Air Force unit. Boris Yeltsin and Dmitry Medvedev escaped the draft.
Their head, Vladimir Vladimirovich, who retired with the rank of colonel of the State Security Service, was even twice. The first time he held this post until May 7, 2008. For the second time, he became the commander-in-chief of the entire Russian army exactly four years later.
