Vasily F. Lata - PIR Center Advisor

Lieutenant-General in the reserves, formally First Deputy to the Head of the Strategic Missile Forces Supreme Staff, a Professor at the Military Science Academy with a doctorate in military science. He was born on January 24, 1944. In 1970, he graduated from the Missile Forces' Kharkov College and, 6 years later, graduated from the F. E. Dzerjinsky Military Academy (now named "Peter the Great Military Academy"). In 1989, he graduated from the General Staff Academy. In 1994 he took a course at Harvard University. Soon after beginning his military career he became platoon and then battery commander, eventually assuming the position of the chief of staff of the missile regiment. From 1981 to 1999, he held the following positions in the Ministry of Defense and in the Strategic Missile Forces General Staff: in the MOD, he was a senior officer, section and then department head, and first deputy of the chief of the military policy directorate. In the General Staff he was the head of the operational directorate and first deputy to the Head. From his military experience, the General is well-versed in the conceptualization, application and reformation of Russia's Strategic Missile and Armed Forces. Additionally, he has a profound understanding of Russian Military Doctrine, which he has used in negotiations and collaboration with the CIS and other foreign countries. Today, Gen. Lata is a Senior Research Associate at the Peter the Great Strategic Missile Forces Military Academy and Professor of the General Staff Academy.