NEWSLINK: Russia’s Putin fires top general after graft scandal

File Photo of Russian Tanks on Parade

(Russia’s Putin fires top general after graft scandal – Reuters – Timothy Heritage – November 9, 2012 – http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/09/us-putin-defence-idUSBRE8A80RC20121109)

Reuters covers Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reshuffling of his top military staff, following the replacement of former defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov with Sergei Shoigu:

Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced the chief of his military staff on Friday in a reshuffle that stamped the authority of the Kremlin chief, and his new defense minister, on the armed forces after a corruption scandal.

Putin removed General Nikolai Makarov after four years as the nuclear power’s top general and replaced him with General Valery Gerasimov, 57, a commander who fought Muslim separatists in the Chechnya region.

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Putin told Gerasimov to press on with reforms to modernize the armed forces and, hinting at tensions that had mounted under Serdyukov’s stewardship, the president told him to improve relations with the defense industry.

“I hope very much that you and the minister will be able to build a good and stable relationship with our leading enterprises in the defense ministry,” Putin said during a televised meeting with Gerasimov and Shoigu.

Referring indirectly to Serdyukov’s poor ties with industry chiefs he had chided for not developing better weapons, Putin said: “We have recently run into changing demands of the defense industry from the Defense Ministry. Of course we must strive to have cutting edge items, but we need a certain stability too.”

Gerasimov, deputy chief of the general staff since 2010, was also appointed first deputy defense minister. Putin also named Arkady Bakhin, commander of Russia’s western military district, as another first deputy defense minister.

Military reforms are expected to continue:

Defense experts said military reforms, due to take more than 100,000 officers out of service, would not be in danger under Shoigu and Gerasimov.

The reforms, two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union and following two wars in Chechnya that highlighted the military’s weaknesses, are intended to create a more modern, mobile and flexible army.

“Army modernization will continue by all means because this was not Serdyukov’s reform, this was Putin’s and (Prime Minister Dmitry) Medvedev’s reform – with Serdyukov enforcing it,” said Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.

Other analysts said Shoigu has turned to people he believed would be reliable in the battle against corruption, which many analysts says runs deep in the military establishment.

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