“The general staff got responsibility for planning, but only the authority to coordinate with all the other agencies, which basically is nothing. You can call someone and say, hey, screw you, and then you have coordinated. Whereas if you command, you have the authority to send them places.”
The Lawfare Podcast · Policy · November 2026
Context
Discussing a 2013 task to design a wartime organisation for the whole Russian state, Oscar Jonsson explains why the military never gained command over agencies like the FSB. The effort fizzled out, which he reads as a sign of the military leadership's falling political influence.
Transcript
…staff that takes political fights, and then with the dismissal of the then chief of general staff, Yunu Balievsky, that is no more. Since then, the Russian General Staff’ has just not had that self-confidence, they're not taking political fights. They've been, let's say, a very loyal servant.
…days, and we'll get in a bit to the current war on Ukraine, but these days seems like quite a relevant thing that they would be tasked with this sort of statewide wartime organization plan. So what was that tasking? And did that result at the time in anything meaningful for the Russian General?
Yeah, again, this is an interesting concept. I think it's probably quite alien for an American listener, but it's actually quite similar to something we have in Sweden. In Sweden, it's called the total defense concepts, which is military defense and civilian defense. And it's everything the state needs to function in war. In Russia, you had the task was set out in 2013 that you needed to create a Vajenaya Organizatia Gusodarista, the wartime organization of the state. And it made a lot of power ministries nervous because, and it was also all of the Russian media, that the Russian military will get kind of command rights over all the other agencies. And that might feel like a bureaucratic distinction, but it's not. It's basically if the armed forces can tell the FSB to do XYZ, go ABC, that says something about hierarchy. And this was quite a long power struggle. It took seven years until it was resolved. And a lot of analysts speculated that the armed forces are going to be power grabbed. They're going to assume control of all the other agencies. And in the end, it all…
Did the Russian General Staff’ listeners can tell we're sort of marching towards the present. Did the Russian General Staff’ play any role in the initial invasion of Ukraine? Ukraine over a decade now ago? And if so, what was that role? And if not, you know, why did they not play a role?
Yeah, that's a great question. And I mean, the book is divided in kind of first, hey, what does the general staff do? A little bit of background. And then it's generating military theory, it's commanding the armed forces, and it's influencing politics. And then the last chapter, which is almost a…
Okay, we might come back to that sanctions point. You mentioned the GRU, which is a great segue. You know, this to me is one of, I mean, there's many interesting, obviously, parts of your book, but this was one that really stood out to me and I thought was very interesting in terms of how you…
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