Putin Shakes Up Military After Lapses

MOSCOW — 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.