3 Russian Security Agencies Are Consolidated by Yeltsin

President Boris N. Yeltsin on Tuesday merged three military security agencies under a new chief known for advocating military reform and, thus, apparently ended a minor Cabinet reshuffle with the suggestion that Russia may now move on its long-delayed aim of streamlining the huge ex-Soviet army.

Yeltsin named Andrei A. Kokoshin, former chief of the Defense Council and State Military Inspectorate, as new secretary of the Russian Security Council. The first two bodies will from now on become part of the Security Council.

“This is a unification of three apparatuses, a kind of synthesis,” a solemn Kokoshin said on commercial NTV’s prime-time “Hero of the Day” program. “The notion of state security is becoming clearer and more compact. Our task will be to do some extra work to make this powerful crystal shine from every facet.”

Sergei V. Yastrzhembsky, Yeltsin’s spokesman, told reporters at a briefing that “the president’s decree is . . . aimed at a closer coordination of efforts toward reforming the whole system of defense and security.”

Kokoshin replaces Yeltsin ally Ivan P. Rybkin, who was named a deputy prime minister Monday. Kokoshin and Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin now have a month, under a presidential decree, to draw up new proposals for military reform.

Until now, this would have been the job of the Defense Council, an agency that was founded in 1996 to promote military reform but that in reality has remained hazily defined and in the shadow of the Security Council. Yeltsin has often said he wants to turn Russia’s huge, underpaid army--a hangover from Soviet superpower days--into a modern fighting force. Despite repeated firings and appointments to senior military jobs in recent years, little reform has actually taken place.

The appointment of Kokoshin, 52, a civilian, ended a shake-up over the last week in which four second-rank Cabinet ministers have been fired. Government spokesman Igor Shabdurasulov told a news briefing: “There are no plans for more dismissals. . . . Changes are possible only in the sense that they are always possible.”

In four days, Yeltsin removed and replaced the transport, education and atomic energy ministers, as well as a deputy prime minister in charge of relations with other former Soviet republics. Rybkin, who is taking over that job, may continue handling Russian relations with the separatist region of Chechnya, which has been running its own internal affairs since the end of a 1994-96 war with Russia. Rybkin’s go-soft approach has kept negotiations going and is respected by both sides.

The government reshuffle, promised since last year, has underlined Yeltsin’s power over his Cabinet--but little else. It has left the impression, much commented on in the Russian media, that the president is simply going through the motions to make clear who is boss in Russia.

No top Cabinet members have been affected by the latest changes. The two senior officials most closely associated with the type of economic reform that attracts Western support--First Deputy Prime Ministers Anatoly B. Chubais and Boris Y. Nemtsov--have been left in place. Market-reform policies have been left intact, even though Yeltsin’s own criticisms and those of the opposition have centered on the government’s economic record.

Financial markets have been hit over the winter by fallout from the collapse of emerging markets in Asia, but traders were cautiously optimistic about the effect of the latest Cabinet moves on a now steady stock market.

“The ruble is stable, interest rates are down, and none of the important ministers were fired,” Oleg Galkin, a trader at ING Barings, told the Bloomberg financial news agency. “I think it’s a positive trend. The mood is good, and the rise in the market will continue.”