Shevtsov's career was in the
motorized rifle forces. In March 1993 Shevtsov became the Deputy Chief of the Main Operations Directorate,
General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. When Lieutenant General
Anatoly Kvashnin was appointed to lead the Joint Group of Federal Forces in
Chechnya in December 1994, he chose to have Shevtsov as his chief of staff. Shevtsov and the General Staff only had a couple of weeks to plan for the operation. He was then appointed the First Deputy Chief of the same directorate, holding that post until July 1997. At the ministerial level, a decision was made to send Russian General Staff officers to NATO on 8 October 1995, and Colonel General Shevtsov was chosen to lead the Russian Ministry of Defense Operational Group to be sent there. The exact solution for the framework of the mission was worked out by him and
U.S. Army General
George Joulwan, the NATO
Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). In three weeks they successfully arranged the joint Russian-NATO mission, despite the fact that previously their military-to-military ties were in an early stage of development, and it had been mostly limited to high-level meetings with no practical work at the lower levels. The 1st Separate Airborne brigade consisted of two or three battalions, drawn from the Russian
76th Guards Air Assault and
98th Guards Airborne divisions. Russia continued its participation in the mission when in late 1996 the Implementation Force in Bosnia became the
Stabilization Force. According to Joulwan, the cooperation between NATO and Russia at SHAPE and in Bosnia contributed to the development and signing of the
NATO–Russia Founding Act at the
1997 Paris summit. Shevtsov was awarded the
Legion of Merit by the U.S. for his work at SHAPE. Speaking about the NATO-Russian military-to-military cooperation, he said "We military have set an example for our politicians by demonstrating that the question of Russian participation in a peacekeeping operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina jointly with the Americans ... can be successfully solved."
Interior Ministry After a year and a half at the NATO military headquarters, he returned to Russia and was appointed the Commander of the
Internal Troops in July 1997. The appointment of Shevtsov, an army general with no experience in the Interior Ministry, was interpreted as helping bring the Internal Troops under the control of the Defense Ministry and of his ally, General Anatoly Kvashnin, who was then the
Chief of the General Staff. It was also to begin reform in the Internal Troops, which had up to that point been unaffected by the reforms taking place in the Armed Forces. After commanding the Internal Troops, from May 1998 to April 1999 he led the Main Directorate of the Interior Ministry in the North Caucasus. Shevtsov was also a
Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs during his entire time at the Interior Ministry from 1997 to 1999. After that, until his retirement in 2007, he was the inspector of the main command of the Internal Troops. When the
National Guard of Russia was created from the Internal Troops, he became an advisor to its commander, General
Viktor Zolotov. ==Awards==