Meeting with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov 2015-03-24 17:10:00 The Kremlin, Moscow Vladimir Putin had a working meeting with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov. The discussion covered, in particular, the results of a large-scale snap inspection of the Armed Forces’ combat readiness conducted in March.