Kremlin Performs Another Switch in Top-Level Military Shake-Up

President Boris N. Yeltsin’s administration on Friday announced a surprise switch in appointments to the troubled military hierarchy, naming the commander of forces responsible for defending Russia against Chechen insurgents as the acting army chief of staff.

Col. Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, now in charge of the volatile North Caucasus military district, was picked to transitionally fill the job vacated by Yeltsin’s firing of Army Chief of Staff Viktor Samsonov on Thursday, said presidential Press Secretary Sergei V. Yastrzhembsky.

Yeltsin’s ouster of Samsonov and Defense Minister Igor N. Rodionov was the most recent in a series of high-profile hatchet jobs as the president attempts to appear tough on greed and graft. Allegations of corruption have been leveled against almost every ministry in the Yeltsin government.

On Thursday, the Far Eastern military district commander, Col. Gen. Viktor Chechevatov, was appointed to replace Samsonov. But, although Kremlin aides were reluctant to speculate Friday, Chechevatov apparently had second thoughts about taking on the daunting task of reforming Russia’s ragged, cash-strapped army.

Also Friday, Yastrzhembsky confirmed the appointment of Gen. Igor Sergeyev, head of the Strategic Rocket Forces, to replace Rodionov as defense minister.