Although he was not chosen to become the commander of the Russian Airborne Forces, Staskov had a significant influence on the development of the branch in the post-Soviet years.

Staskov was born on 28 August 1951 in the village of Buda [ru], Smolensk Oblast, in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union.

After the socialist Mengistu Haile Mariam rose to power in Ethiopia, the Soviet Union provided his government with military advisors.

Staskov was in a group of ten Soviet paratrooper officers who were sent to Ethiopia with the task of training the Ethiopian military to carry out reconnaissance, which they did on some islands in the Red Sea.

Staskov negotiated with their owners to bring the stations under temporary protection during the unrest, and he returned them several days later when the coup attempt fell apart.

[7] Staskov attended the General Staff Academy in the early 1990s, graduating in 1993,[1] and in September 1993 he was appointed the deputy commander of the Airborne Forces for peacekeeping operations.

[9] On 1 January 1995, while Staskov was in the city, there was a close call when a Chechen fighter with a grenade launcher fired at him when he looked out of the hatch of his BTR armored vehicle.

He dove back in and the grenade bounced off the closed hatch, landing behind the vehicle, and he told the driver to move forward.

[1] In the fall of 1995 and early 1996, Russia began deploying the 1st Separate Airborne Brigade to Bosnia-Herzegovina to participate in the NATO's Implementation Force after the Dayton Agreement.

In December 1995 Staskov was in Bosnia, during which time he met with the Bosnian Serb indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic, without the approval of Russia's NATO allies.

[1][15] In July 1999 Staskov told the media that Russia intends to participate in the Kosovo Force for the long term, and at that point its contribution was up to 1,200 paratroopers.

Staskov was reportedly the most popular choice within the Airborne Forces, but his candidacy was opposed by the Chief of the General Staff, Anatoly Kvashnin.

[17] Staskov assisted with the reforms of the VDV, which was maintained as a separate service and the reserve of the president of Russia despite some pressure to integrate it into the Russian Ground Forces, and it was organized into airborne, air assault, and mountain units.

He had a role in making the 76th Guards Airborne Division a model unit for the professionalization of the Russian military, and specifically for the plan of turning the VDV into an all-volunteer force.

[6] After retiring, in 2005 he acquired a doctorate in political science from the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.