Putin Fires Four Deputy Ministers Of Defense, Appoints Relatives As His Substitute

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin sacked four deputy defense ministers and appointed a relative, Anna Tsivileva, to fill one of the vacancies.

Putin sacked deputy defense minister Nikolai Pankov, Ruslan Tsalikov, Tatiana Shevtsova and Pavel Popov, according to the Kremlin's decision. She appointed Tsivileva, who Russian media said was Putin's cousin, deputy defense minister.

Leonid Gornin, deputy finance minister, will be the first deputy defense minister under Defense Minister Andrei Belousov.

Pavel Fradkov, son of former Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, was appointed deputy defense minister. Oleg Savelyev was also appointed deputy defense minister.

After Putin last month appointed Belousov as defense minister and transferred Sergei Shoigu to Russia's Security Council, the move appeared to be an attempt to put loyalists in the defense ministry.