Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has dismissed the head of the country's powerful GRU military intelligence service, the Kremlin has said.

克里姆林宫发言人称，俄罗斯总统梅德韦杰夫解除了情报总局首领的职位。

Gen Korabelnikov had led the Main Directorate of Intelligence since 1997

Mr Medvedev signed a decree（法令，判决） on Friday replacing Gen Valentin Korabelnikov with Gen Alexander Shlyakhturov. Officials gave no reason for the move.

Gen Korabelnikov had led the Main Directorate of Intelligence since 1997.

He reportedly tendered（提供，投标） his resignation earlier this year over objections to proposed reforms of the agency.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence (GRU) of the General Staff is Russia's largest intelligence agency. It is believed to have six times as many agents in foreign countries as the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), one of the successors to the Soviet¹ KGB.

The GRU is said to have a massive worldwide spy network

Protest

In a statement on Friday, the Kremlin announced that President Medvedev had signed a decree that "released" Gen Korabelnikov from his post and from military service.

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says this is potentially one of the most significant decisions Mr Medvedev has taken since being sworn in almost a year ago.

It reinforces statements he made last month that he intends pushing ahead with a major overhaul²（大修） of the armed forces despite opposition³ from some senior officers, and that those who do stand in the way such as the military intelligence chief risk being swept aside, our correspondent says.

Gen Korabelnikov had been the head of military intelligence for 12 years and was a four-star general.

Analysts⁴ say the 63-year-old was one of the main opponents of the planned military reforms, which could see the Russian armed forces shrink from 1.3 million serving men and women to one million.

The majority of those cuts would come from the officer corps⁵, which could see the loss of around 200,000 posts, including many generals.

Some of the proposed reforms were said to have included the disbanding（解散，使退伍） of several GRU-controlled army special forces (Spetsnaz) brigades（旅，队，组） and the redistribution（重新分配） of the command of some GRU structures to the SVR.

Gen Korabelnikov is reported to have submitted his resignation in protest last November. When rumours⁶ again circulated in March, defence officials announced that his term of service had been extended by two years.

Unnamed GRU sources told Russian media that one of the reasons why the general's resignation had not been accepted at the time was that many of his deputies had refused to assume his post.

The Kremlin said the new GRU chief, Gen Shlyakhturov, had been one of Gen Korabelnikov's deputies. He is reportedly seen by some in the military as a more compliant⁷（服从的，顺从的） figure who may not challenge ministers.

Although President Medvedev has insisted that the reforms of the military will go ahead, it is not clear when, our correspondent says.

The country is in the grip of a severe economic crisis which has already seen millions of people thrown out of work, he adds.

In a separate development, three districts in Chechnya have been officially designated zones of counter-terrorist activity only a week after Russia said it had ended its decade-long military campaign against separatist（分离主义者，独立派） rebels in the southern republic.