Top Russian generals leave amid reform fight

By Christian Lowe

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two of Russia's most senior generals were relieved of their duties on Monday in what one analyst said was a purge of commanders who oppose a plan to reform the vast, nuclear-armed military.

Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has been ordered to give Russia a modern armed forces that would match its ambitions to be a major player on the world stage, but he has encountered fierce resistance from his own commanders.

The two generals, both deputy heads of the military's general staff, were discharged because they had reached the retirement age of 60, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a Defence Ministry spokesman as saying.

Many top generals serve beyond that age and the formula is often used to explain a dismissal. Last month the two men's former boss, chief of general staff General Yuri Baluyevsky, left on the same grounds.

"All the people who are unhappy with Serdyukov ... or were appointed by the previous defense minister, are being removed from the general staff," said analyst Stanislav Belkovsky, who co-authored a report on the state of the military.

Contacted by Reuters, the Defence Ministry said no one was available to comment.

ASSERTIVE STANCE

Russia has one of the world's biggest armies in terms of troop numbers and it inherited from the Soviet Union the world's second-biggest nuclear arsenal.