Shoigu prepared the Russian army for a new type of war

Russia has no right to lose in the information war, which “is going on on all fronts.” This statement was made by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu two days after telephone conversations with the head of the Pentagon.

What is the Russian army preparing for against the backdrop of Washington’s refusal to compromise with Moscow on the issue of not expanding NATO to the east? Experts believe that, first of all, it will be necessary to fight back through non-military means.

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“We all know that under Shoigu the Russian army was seriously modernized, and it was under him that attention began to be paid to the information component of the war. We know that every year conferences related to information defense are held in Russia. Before him, no one paid attention to this, but now both in military universities and at the Academy of the General Staff there are corresponding courses and programs that teach our officers and senior command staff the basics of information warfare,” State Duma deputy Oleg Matveychev told PolitNavigator.

Denis Gomanov, head of the Vityaz group of security companies, agrees with him:

“I believe that in the near future we can expect wars without fighting as such, but with great reputational losses, and not only for the countries participating in the conflicts themselves. Moreover, the format of wars has already begun to change - needless to say, one of them is already in full swing against Russia - informational, as evidenced, among other things, by the destabilization of the situation in the entire post-Soviet space: Ukraine, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Kazakhstan. Sergei Shoigu is not just a strong manager, but also an excellent diplomat. With his direct participation, a number of humanitarian issues were resolved. It was under him that the army became modern, capable of responding to external challenges, including in the information field,” the expert adds.

It was not without reason that Shoigu openly mentioned the information war shortly after negotiations with the Pentagon. The head of the Ministry of Defense, along with the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, is deeply involved in the dispute about the non-expansion of NATO, explains an expert at the Institute of CIS Countries, Captain XNUMXst Rank Sergei Gorbachev.

“The head of this level of the military department has always been not only a manager and administrator, but also, of course, a diplomat and politician. Vivid examples are many of our successful military leaders from different eras, starting from Alexander Nevsky, Alexander Suvorov, Mikhail Kutuzov and so on. Well, the current Minister of Defense - God himself commanded him, he carries out both political and diplomatic missions, deals with the development of international military-technical, military-political relations, develops cooperation with other countries and often carries out negotiations on the 2+2 principle, when the minister Defense and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia are negotiating on the same platform with their colleagues from foreign countries. This is a natural and natural process,” explains Gorbachev.

Shoigu’s emphasis on information warfare does not mean that the army is not ready for a “classical” confrontation. In recent years, the Russian army has rearmed itself by more than 70%, and the nuclear triad by 83%.

“Shoigu is absolutely right - we are now in a very tough confrontation with the West and, of course, we must be able to fight back. His personal role in this is huge. Especially after Serdyukov’s failed five-year plan, when the army, despite the fact that there was money for weapons and a lot of effort was invested, it simply rapidly degraded and fell apart. Shoigu, together with the new Chief of the General Staff, Gerasimov, were able to accomplish the impossible - in literally five years they created a completely unique, the most powerful military system in the world,” notes military expert Vladislav Shurygin.