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Putin reshuffles government
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RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin reshuffled the government on Wednesday, appointing a civilian for the first time to head the defence ministry and a new interior minister responsible for the Chechnya campaign.
The surprise move was the first time since his coming to power a year ago that Putin has made major changes to the government although the prime minister, foreign minister and economic team remained at their posts.
Putin named hawkish former Security Council chief Sergei Ivanov — who like the Russian president served in the Soviet-era KGB — as his new defence minister.
Ivanov is one of Putin's most trusted allies who worked with the new Russian leader in the city administration of Russia's second city, Saint Petersburg.
But in a much less expected move, Putin also picked parliament's pro-Kremlin Unity faction leader Boris Gryzlov to head the interior ministry, which is leading the military campaign in breakaway Chechnya.
Gryzlov takes the seat of the dismissed interior minister Vladimir Rushailo, who will now head the Security Council.
The Kremlin chief, who was elected a year ago, said the time for a reshuffle — long rumoured in the Russian press, but denied by official Kremlin sources — had come.
Putin stressed he was thinking primarily of long-stalled army reforms and the situation in breakaway Chechnya, where Russia has been waging a brutal 18-month anti-terrorist campaign, when making the changes.
“The time has come when we have to make personnel moves," Putin said. “This is the logical conclusion to the completion of our bid to modernize the country's military structure."
Putin said the new Russian defence minister has been "entrusted to lead the path of reforming our lives."
The news of Putin's reshuffle came on the same day that Russia announced it was abandoning its efforts to strike a one-year co-operation agreement with the International Monetary Fund, arguing it had the resources to fend for itself and was tired of being dictated to by Westerners.(SD-Agencies)
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