Take note of this battle-scarred brutalsky face, my dear foreignsky.
Name’s Gerasimov Valery, son of Vasily. He is the Chief of General Staff of the Russian armed forces. This man is the only person standing between Putin and a possible nuclear strike.
Allegedly, NATO’s top brass respect the son of Vasily and believe he’s in his right mind unlike his superiors in Kremlin.
Let’s imagine a hypothetical doomsday scenario. One day Vladimir Putin decides that NATO has crossed all the red lines he has drawn with a red pencil, and it’s time to go all Hiroshima and Nagasaki on them.
He opens up a nuclear briefcase and dials the Commander in Chief, Sergey Shoigu.
Mr. Shoigu is a former reindeer herder, a practicing shaman, a man who gives jobs to his mistresses and awards general ranks after they celebrate their thirtieth birthday, a man who hasn’t served a single day in the army and owes his entire career to just one man – Mr. Putin.
Naturally, Shoigu would obey his master. However, he cannot order a nuclear strike without consent from the chief of General Staff.
And Mr. Gerasimov, a battle-tested veteran, a man of honor, would likely disobey the reindeer herder and a man with messianic complex. I mean, right?
And if Mr. Gerasimov doesn’t, well, foreignsky, it’s finito la comedia.