Leonid Grigoryevich Ivashov (; born 31 August 1943) is a Russian military and public official. He is a former President of the Academy for Geopolitical Problems and a retired colonel general. In January 2022, as the head of the All-Russian Officers Assembly, he published a statement condemning Putin's "criminal policy of provoking a war" during the 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis and calling for President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

's resignation.

Biography

In 1964, Ivashov graduated from Tashkent Suvorov Military School and later in 1974 from the

Frunze Military Academy The M. V. Frunze Military Academy (), or in full the Military Order of Lenin and the October Revolution, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Academy in the name of M. V. Frunze (), was a military academy of the Soviet and later the Russian Armed Forces ...

. He was a platoon commander in the Soviet military forces that invaded Czechoslovakia to put down the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring (; ) was a period of liberalization, political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected Secretary (title), First Secre ...

in 1968. Between 1976 and 1984, he worked as a senior aide to the Soviet Minister of Defense

Dmitry Ustinov Dmitriy Fyodorovich Ustinov (; 30 October 1908 – 20 December 1984) was a Soviet politician and a Marshal of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He served as a Central Committee secretary in charge of the Soviet military–industrial comple ...

. In 1987 he became chief of the department for general affairs in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

’s Ministry of Defense. From 1996 to 2001, he was chief of the military cooperation department at the

Russian Ministry of Defense The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (; MOD) is the governing body of the Russian Armed Forces. The President of Russia is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Commander-in-Chief of the forces ...

. He was in charge of military co-operation between members of the

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization, regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an ar ...

. General Ivashov was one of the organizers of the march of Russian paratroopers to Pristina in 1999. After his retirement in 2001, Ivashov wrote extensively on military affairs and geopolitics. Between 2004 and 2014, he was President of the Academy for Geopolitical Problems. After a year break he was reelected president of the Academy end of March 2015. He was reportedly involved in the '' Foundations of Geopolitics'', a book by

Aleksandr Dugin Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin (; born 7 January 1962) is a Russian far-right political philosopher. He is the leading theorist of Russian neo-Eurasianism. Born into a military intelligence family, Dugin was an anti-communist dissident during the ...

. On December 5, 2011, he notified his intention to participate in the presidential race through self-nomination. But the Central Election Committee refused his nomination for administrative reasons. In October 2016, Ivashov explained in Russian Channel One that Russia's engagement in the Syrian conflict was critical to prevent construction of Qatar–Turkey pipeline, which would be catastrophic for

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐsˈprom) is a Russian State-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational Energy industry, energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. The Gazprom name is a contract ...

and, in turn, for the budget of the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. On 31 January 2022, during the prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Chairman of the Russian Officers' General Assembly, Gen. Ivashov published a statement condemning Putin's "criminal policy of provoking a war" and calling for President Putin's resignation. Blaming Putin for risking "the final destruction of Russian statehood and the extermination of the indigenous population of the country" Ivashov stated that the real danger for Russia was not NATO or the West but "the unviability of the state model, the complete incapacity and lack of professionalism of the system of power and administration, the passivity and disorganization of society." Under these conditions "no country survives for long". According to Paul Roderick Gregory, "Ivashov believes that

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

is a hostile power, but his experience has taught him that the NATO/U.S. threat is under control and no external threat is imminent from the Western powers." Also on 7 February 2022 Ivashov publicly called for Putin to resign over threats of a "criminal" invasion of Ukraine.

References

External links

A comprehensive biography of Ivashov on the page of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems

Biography of Leonid Ivashov (in Russian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivashov, Leonid 1943 births Living people People from Chüy Region Academic staff of Moscow State Linguistic University Frunze Military Academy alumni Tashkent Higher All-Arms Command School alumni Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Recipients of the Medal "For Strengthening of Brotherhood in Arms" Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class Recipients of the Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR", 2nd class Recipients of the Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR", 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Military Merit (Russia) Geopoliticians Opposition to Vladimir Putin Russian activists against the Russian invasion of Ukraine Russian colonel generals Russian politicians Soviet Army officers Criticism of the official accounts of the September 11 attacks