MOSCOW – President Putin has sacked his chief of general staff and other top security officials in the wake of a brazen attack near Chechnya last month that deeply embarrassed the Russian military. Analysts say the move also rids Mr. Putin of a key opponent to long-awaited reforms to Russia’s cash strapped and outdated armed forces.

The presidential administration announced yesterday that Mr. Putin had dismissed General Anatoly Kvashnin as chief of staff and General Vyacheslav Tikhomirov, who headed the Interior Ministry’s troops serving in Chechnya. Also dismissed were Anatoly Yezhkov, the deputy director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB, and Mikhail Labunets, the military commander in the North Caucasus.

General Kvashnin will be replaced with his first deputy, General Yury Baluyevsky, who is generally seen as pro-Western and reform-minded.

Experts said it has been clear for weeks that drastic changes in the top brass were on the way.

“After what happened in Ingushetia, a shakeup was inevitable,” said an independent defense analyst, Pavel Felgenhauer. “That was a huge blunder.”

Last month’s attacks in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya, saw hundreds of rebel fighters briefly seize control of police and government facilities in well-coordinated assaults that took Russian forces completely by surprise. More than 90 people were killed.

The assault dealt a heavy blow to the Russian military’s pride and the government’s claims that it has the region under control.

But analysts also said that the shakeup – and Mr. Kvashnin’s firing in particular – were a result of a power struggle over the future of the military.

Mr. Putin has made a top priority of reforming Russia’s increasingly ineffective military, which is beset by funding problems, aging equipment, and frequent desertions. The president has promised to streamline the military by cutting staff and turning the 1.3 million-strong force – made up mostly of unwilling conscripts – into a professional one.

General Kvashnin, who first gained prominence as the leader of the failed war to seize control of Chechnya in 1994-96, was known to be among those most opposed to reform plans. He not only opposed cutting staff, but supported an increase in Russia’s already massive ground forces.

“[General Kvashnin] is one of those most responsible for the military’s miserable state,” Mr. Felgenhauer said.

Last month, Mr. Putin issued a decree making sweeping changes to the military, including reducing the general staff to a department of the Defense Ministry, headed by a close ally of the president and Russia’s first civilian defense minister, Sergei Ivanov. General Kvashnin had reportedly offered his resignation after the reorganization.

“The tensions between the president and the chief of staff were obvious. He was clearly an obstacle to reform,” said a Moscow-based senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information, Ivan Safranchuk.

His replacement, General Baluyevsky,is well-regarded as a proponent of change and international cooperation. General Baluyevsky has helped negotiate an arms reduction treaty with America and also set up the joint NATO-Russia Council, widely seen as a significant step forward in military relations between Russia and the West. General Baluyevsky has also been less hawkish than other top brass in opposing NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe.

Mr. Safranchuk said General Baluyevsky’s appointment marks a significant turning point in Mr. Putin’s efforts to control the armed forces.

“Between 2000 and 2003, the president made very few changes in the top ranks of the military, he tried to work with what he had inherited from [President Boris] Yeltsin,” Mr. Safranchuk said.

“Now it looks like he’s finally made up his mind to do something.”