Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree appointing Yuri Baluyevskly as Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, the presidential press service said on Monday.

The decree dismissed Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, also the First Deputy Defense Minister, from his post of Chief of General Staff.

Baluyevskly, 57, had been deputy Chief of General Staff. He is known to be one of the architects of the Russia-US Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), which President Putin and his US counterpart George W. Bush signed during Bush's visit to Russiain 2002.

Putin also sacked several other top military and law enforcement officials, including Deputy Interior Minister and Interior Troops Commander-in-Chief Army Gen. Vyacheslav Tikhomirov,Commander of the Interior Troops' North Caucasus district Col. Gen.Mikhail Labunets, Interfax news agency reported.

Federal Security Service (FSB) Deputy Director Col. Gen. Anatoly Yezhkov was also dismissed under Putin's order.

The Russian military, Interior Ministry and FSB have been jointly fighting against separatist activities in Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya and its neighboring regions including Ingushetia.

Putin's shake-up decree came after last month's coordinated attacks by armed rebels on government and police facilities in Ingushetia, which left some 90 people dead and over 90 others injured.

Chechnya won a de-facto independence in 1996 after the pullout of Russian troops but federal forces re-entered the lawless region in September 1999.

Since then, the guerrilla war between Chechen rebels and Russian troops continues to claim lives almost on a daily basis and occasionally spreads into neighboring regions.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2004)