That is scary!
RUSSKIES SHAKING THINGS UP A BIT:
Russian President Shakes Up Top Military
story.news.yahoo.com/news...med_forces
MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) on Monday dismissed the military's chief of general staff and other top military and law enforcement officials, in a move widely expected after a devastating assault by militants in southern Russia last month.
Putin dismissed Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin as military chief of staff and Gen. Vyachelsav Tikhomirov, the head of the Interior Ministry forces. He also dismissed Anatoly Yezhkov, deputy director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor agency to the KGB.
Also dismissed 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 (news - web sites). Yezhkov was the FSB's top official for the North Caucasus.
The shakeup follows last month's attack by militants on police facilities in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya; 90 people were killed in the brazen, well-coordinated assaults.
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 stabilizing.
Kvashnin is to be replaced by Col. Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, formerly first deputy chief of the general staff.
Baluyevsky is seen as well-inclined toward the West. In April, after NATO (news - web sites) expanded its membership to include several ex-Soviet republics, Baluyevsky 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.
(I sure don't believe the last line---pure feint)