The Committee on Defense and Security of the Federation Council is headed by Vladimir Bulavin

At a plenary meeting on Wednesday, the Federation Council approved changes in the leadership of the Defense and Security Committee. Former Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces (VKS) Viktor Bondarev, who headed it for the last six years, exchanged positions with the ex-head of the Federal Customs Service (FCS), a native of the state security agencies, Vladimir Bulavin, who became a senator less than a month ago and at the same time took the post of first deputy chairman of the committee . According to the expert, castling reflects a new approach to the work of the upper chamber: accounting and control instead of military strategies.

Its first deputy chairman, Sergei Martynov, made a report on changes in the leadership of the Defense Committee. According to the senator, Colonel General Viktor Bondarev decided to leave the post of chairman of his own free will, which he informed his colleagues at a committee meeting on October 10. Mr. Martynov did not disclose the reasons for this decision.

“We all know Viktor Nikolayevich well, he is a deeply respected person in our team,” Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko took the floor, adding that he “carried out his duties honestly, conscientiously, like a real officer.” “Viktor Nikolayevich has come such a long way in military service, received the rank of colonel general, he is a Hero of Russia,” summarized Mrs. Matvienko, as if seeing off Mr. Bondarev in retirement.

However, turning to the Colonel General himself, the speaker made a reservation: “You are not going anywhere, you remain on the committee and, I am sure, you will work just as actively.”

The defense committee includes people who have undergone “different types of military service” – people from the Ministry of Defense, the FSB, the Russian Guard and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Viktor Bondarev “managed this team very effectively,” the chairman of the upper house continued.

“But life goes on, there is a rotation,” she explained.

Let us remind you, Mr. Bondarev represents the executive power of the Kirov region in the Federation Council. He was delegated to the upper house in 2017 and immediately headed the defense committee. Before that, for five years he held the position of commander-in-chief, first of the Air Force, and then of the Russian Aerospace Forces. Participant in both Chechen campaigns and military operations in Syria. As a senator, he actively commented on the progress of the special operation in Ukraine. In July 2023, together with the head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation, Andrei Klishas, ​​Viktor Bondarev criticized the State Duma’s proposal to leave the lower limit of conscription age at 18 years old while raising the upper limit to 30 (the original version of the reform involved shifting these limits from 18–27 years to 21– 30), but later supported this amendment.

Mr. Bondarev was replaced by another Colonel General, Vladimir Bulavin, who had worked in the state security agencies since the late 1970s.

In 1992, he headed the FSB directorate for the Nizhny Novgorod region, in 2006 he became deputy director of the service, and in 2008 – first deputy secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. In 2013, he took the position of presidential envoy in the Northwestern Federal District, and in 2016 he headed the Federal Customs Service. In February 2023, he resigned upon reaching his service limit, and in September he was delegated to the Federation Council by the Governor of the Ivanovo Region, Stanislav Voskresensky. Mr. Bulavin joined the Defense Committee, immediately taking the post of its first deputy chairman.

“You all understand well what the customs service is,” Valentina Matvienko introduced the new head of the committee. “The whole picture of the economy, foreign trade turnover, and problems passed through Vladimir Ivanovich. That is, he understands and feels the country well. And, of course, he has extensive experience in the security service field, which is very relevant and very important now.” The speaker added that Mr. Bulavin is “generally a very worthy person,” and summarized that he “agreed to be elected.”

The senators approved the proposed castling by a majority of votes, but not unanimously. When voting for the resignation of Viktor Bondarev from the post of chairman, member of the Defense Committee Sergei Bezdenezhnykh abstained, and member of the Committee on Agricultural and Food Policy Boris Nevzorov abstained from voting for his appointment to the post of first deputy chairman. And several more senators simply did not vote on the last issue, including Andrei Klishas, ​​Galina Karelova, Alexander Uss, Lyudmila Narusova, Vladimir Gorodetsky and others.

Let us note that Viktor Bondarev was the most experienced military man in the post of head of the defense committee of the Federation Council in its entire history. Thus, in the first convocation (1994-1996) the committee was headed by the former head of the political department of the air defense corps in Bryansk, Pyotr Shirshov, in the second (1996-2001) – the governors of the Tambov and Voronezh regions Alexander Ryabov and Ivan Shabanov, who had nothing to do with military affairs. Finally, from 2001 to 2017, the committee was permanently led by Viktor Ozerov, who, before starting his political career, served as a political instructor of a military unit in the Khabarovsk city of Vyazemsky.

One of the senators told Kommersant that the castling of Viktor Bondarev to Vladimir Bulavin came as a surprise to members of the Defense and Security Committee: “This was not discussed anywhere and happened, let’s say, promptly, quite abruptly.”

According to him, Mr. Bondarev explained to his colleagues that he made the decision to give up the post on his own, because he was tired of “pulling the committee”, and “there are other people” to replace him.

According to political scientist Konstantin Kalachev, Viktor Bondarev did not criticize the Ministry of Defense, so the reason for the castling should be sought in the hardware arrangements. “Since special attention in the work of the committee is paid to legal and financial support for the development of the defense-industrial complex, reforming the armed forces, including improving the social security of military personnel and law enforcement officers, we need a person with a background like Bulavin. The committee is not engaged in military strategies,” explains the expert. In his assessment, this appointment reflects the committee’s conditional transition from “military” to “security”: “Accounting and control instead of military strategies.”

Andrey Prah