Putin sacks top brass after rebel assault

President Vladimir Putin sacked the military’s chief of general staff and other top brass today, in a move widely expected after a devastating assault by militants in southern Russia last month.

General Anatoly Kvashnin lost his job as military chief of staff as did General Vyachelsav Tikhomirov, the head of the Interior Ministry forces.

Putin also dismissed Anatoly Yezhkov, deputy director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor agency to the KGB.

Also sacked was commander of the North Caucasus military district, Mikhail Labunets.

The Russian military, Interior Ministry and FSB all are involved in Russia’s campaign against separatist rebels in Chechnya. Yezhkov was the FSB’s top official for the North Caucasus.

The shake-up follows last month’s attack by militants on police facilities in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya, which killed 90 people.

The military’s inability to block the massive assault by hundreds of fighters underlined Russian forces’ weaknesses in the region and undermined Kremlin claims that Chechnya and the North Caucasus region in general are stabilising.

Kvashnin is to be replaced by Colonel General Yuri Baluyevsky, formerly first deputy chief of the general staff.

Baluyevsky is seen as well-inclined toward the West. In April, after Nato expanded its membership to include several ex-Soviet republics, he struck a conciliatory stance, saying that Moscow would closely watch the alliance’s activities in the new Baltic member states, but wanted to avoid taking military countermeasures.