MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) - President Vladimir Putin plans to reinstate soon the generals fired by former defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported on Monday.
"The generals list is topped by former commander of the North Caucasus Military District Col. Gen. Sergei Makarov and ex-commander of the 58th Army, Lt. Gen. Anatoly Khrulyov," sources in the Defense Ministry told the newspaper.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov have reinstated Makarov, who will take charge of the General Staff's Military Academy.
A post is being selected for Khrulyov.
The General Staff Military Academy's current head, Lt. Gen. Andrei Tretyak, is likely to be appointed as head of the Military Education Department, Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes..
Makarov and Khrulyov coordinated the military operation in South Ossetia against Georgian aggression in August 2008. After the "five-day war" the then General Staff chief Nikolai Makarov blamed them for mistakes made and the losses sustained, which is believed to be the reason for their dismissal in the summer of 2010, the newspaper writes.
Meanwhile, Sergei Makarov's dismissal in 2010 may have been politically motivated, a sources in the former staff of the North Caucasus Military District told the newspaper. The source said that on August 8, 2008, when the Georgian troops attacked Tskhinvali, Sergei Makarov ordered Russian troops to enter South Ossetia on his own, after he failed to get an order from General Staff Chief Nikolai Makarov and to get in touch by telephone with Serdyukov.