Shoigu civilian? ... well, short of...
Yep, Shoigu civilian. Before becoming a major general, he was a lieutenant, and received the rank of lieutenant thanks to his studies at a university with a military department. And you yourself know this very well, but out of habit you quoted only that part of the information that is beneficial to you. You have a professional deformation from an overdose of propaganda. Quote
Shoigu received the rank of major general in 1993,[12] and was promoted swiftly to lieutenant general in 1995,[13] colonel general in 1998,[14] and to army general, in practice the highest Russian military rank, in 2003.[15]
Oh, so he was civilian before he is no longer civilian. So now is not civilian? And somehow I am doing propaganda? You have an interesting way of thinking.
I mean, I am sure that applies to all military, they are not born militaries, they eventually become militaries. I could quote how he was first civilian, but it would not add, subtract, multiply, divide nor make the square root of the fact that he is not civilian now, but military and hence my statement saying that he is military is correct, whereas your statement about him being civilian is, at minimum, inaccurate.
Shoigu is not a military man in the sense that he is not a product of the military system. He did not serve in the army, did not graduate from a higher military school, and was not an active officer. The Russian military itself does not consider Shoigu a military man.
Before Shoigu, Russia's Minister of Defense was Serdyukov, a former head of the tax service. Before Serdyukov, the Minister of Defense was Ivanov, a philologist by training. My point is that the Minister of Defense is not a professional military man; this is normal practice in Europe in general and in Russia in particular. The highest rank for a military man is the head of the General Staff. Formally, the supreme commander is the president, but you won’t say that Biden is a military man?