It is obvious that such inconsistency demonstrates that the Kremlin is dissatisfied with the conduct of the war but the decision to put Gen Valery Gerasimov, the head of the armed forces, in charge of the invasion is eye-catching for other reasons too.
Demoted to being one of three deputies is Gen Sergei Surovikin after just three months in charge.
Surovikin, the commander of the aerospace forces, earned the nickname "General Armageddon" after ordering the destruction of Aleppo from the air in 2016 to break rebel resistance, which led to the fall of the Syrian city later that year.
The grimly similar attempt to bomb Ukraine's energy grid to destruction during his tenure seems to have failed, and there is growing western confidence that Moscow is running short of the guided missiles needed to sustain the effort.
Some of the Russian military bloggers most closely followed by western experts were notably cynical about the change. "The change of places does not change the sum of the parts," said one.
This story is from the January 20, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the January 20, 2023 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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