Putin Shakes Up Military After Lapses

President Vladimir V. Putin replaced several top-level military and security officials Monday in a shake-up seen primarily as punishment for recent lapses in battling Chechen separatists.

The dismissal of Gen. Anatoly V. Kvashnin, military chief of staff, boosts Defense Minister Sergei B. Ivanov’s power, as the two had fought openly over policy and military authority.

In the policy battle, Kvashnin generally favored higher spending and a focus on ground forces, while Ivanov argued that the military needed to be restructured to emphasize more sophisticated operations using better technology.

Ivanov gained an edge last month when parliament made the General Staff subordinate to the Defense Ministry. Previously, the law stated that the General Staff was “the main organ for operational control of the armed forces,” and its chief reported to the president rather than the defense minister.

Now, Ivanov -- seen as a possible successor to Putin when the president’s second term expires in 2008 -- has won his fight.

“The supreme commander in chief and I believe that the General Staff should concentrate on the development of the armed forces and on future wars, and should deal with current affairs to a lesser degree,” Ivanov said in remarks reported by the Russian news agency Itar-Tass.

Kvashnin, who was appointed by former President Boris N. Yeltsin, was replaced by his first deputy, Col. Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky. The new chief agrees that the General Staff’s focus should be on planning for the future, Ivanov said.

By placing Putin’s choices into top military positions, the shake-up reinforces the president’s firm grip on power.

“This measure will of course strengthen Putin’s position in the military,” said Viktor Baranets, a former Defense Ministry spokesman who is a military analyst for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. “Kvashnin was anything but a strategist, but he managed to stay in such a key position thanks to his unique powers of being a crafty intriguer.”

Baluyevsky, the new chief of staff, has played a role in negotiating strategic arms cuts with the U.S. and is generally seen as a moderate in regard to Russia’s stance toward the West.

When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization expanded this spring to take in seven new members, including three Baltic countries that once were part of the Soviet Union, Baluyevsky was a key spokesman for Russia’s low-key response.

“As a military man, I see clearly that the main -- and I would even say the fundamental -- goal of Russia is to prevent Russia’s isolation,” he said at an April news conference on Russia-NATO relations. “Overwhelmed by emotions, we may threaten with weapons and the use of force. But the question is whether we should do that today.... I think we will be looking for more civilized ways.”

The sackings of Kvashnin, two other generals and a top official with the Federal Security Service, or FSB, were seen as a result of Russian forces’ failure last month to adequately respond to attacks by guerrillas fighting for independence for the republic of Chechnya and possibly neighboring regions.

About 1,000 militants launched attacks on the night of June 21 that killed at least 92 people, including 67 law enforcement officials. Although the fighting occurred in the republic of Ingushetia, it was closely linked to the separatist struggle in neighboring Chechnya. Rebels donned police uniforms, stopped cars at roadblocks and checked identification cards, then systematically executed police officers. Before dawn they disappeared, and the great majority escaped.

“The Ingushetia attack became the last straw which sealed Kvashnin’s fate,” Baranets said. “The General Staff, when faced with an acute threat to national security, is responsible for coordination between the Defense and Interior ministries and the FSB. Very poor, or rather no coordination at all, led to a tragically massive loss of life.”

Also dismissed from their posts Monday were Gen. Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, the head of Interior Ministry troops; Gen. Mikhail Labunets, the top military commander in the north Caucasus, which includes Chechnya; and Gen. Anatoly Yezhkov, deputy head of the FSB, the domestic successor to the Soviet-era KGB. The agency is directly involved in the fighting in Chechnya.

Retired Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy for Geopolitical Problems, criticized the outgoing chief of staff for waging nasty battles over internal politics.

“Kvashnin played a very bad role in the fate of many capable and competent military commanders, including former Defense Minister Igor D. Sergeyev, who were discharged from active military duty in part due to the intrigues masterminded by Kvashnin constantly driven by selfish ambitions,” Ivashov said.

Times staff writer Sergei L. Loiko contributed to this report.