President Boris Yeltsin on Tuesday fired Matvei Burlakov, the deputy defense minister whose name has been connected in the Russian press with widespread corruption and with the recent death of an investigative reporter.


An unusually strongly worded presidential decree firing Burlakov said the general's ouster was linked to "ongoing investigations" and was essential to preserve the honor of the armed forces.


Colonel General Burlakov commanded the army's Western Group of Forces until the last troops left Berlin this summer. Not only has the media accused him of illegal arms trading while in East Germany, but press reports have also tied him to the bombing death of Dmitry Kholodov, 27, a Moscow journalist who had been investigating the Western Group.


Neither allegation has been publicly substantiated, but both are the subjects of separate official investigations.


Presidential spokesman Denis Perkin declined to comment on the action, other than to read the decree dismissing Burlakov, which carries Yeltsin's signature. It said Burlakov was removed "in order to protect the honor of the Russian Federation's armed forces, their senior commanders, the authority of state power and in connection with current probes."


Yelena Agapova, an aide to Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, would not say whether Yeltsin consulted his top military officer before relieving Burlakov of his duties.


Burlakov's dismissal will, however, come as an embarrassment to Grachev, who had lobbied hard to have Burlakov elevated to the post of deputy defense minister as recently as September.


By contrast, the dismissal appeared to vindicate General Dmitry Volkogonov, once a close Yeltsin military adviser and now a member of the Duma, who had fought Burlakov's promotion.


Volkogonov was eventually overruled, but "It turned out I was right," he said Tuesday night. "This is all very sad. It's unpleasant for the authorities. It's unpleasant for Yeltsin and it's unpleasant for Grachev."


Volkogonov praised Yeltsin for taking a "bold step" in dismissing Burlakov, saying "Democracy still has not failed. We still have a chance."


Burlakov, 59, was born in the city of Ulan-Ude near Lake Baikal and entered the army in 1957. He rose through the ranks to become a division leader in 1973, a post he held until 1977. He became deputy commander of the Zabaikalsky Military District in 1983. In 1988 took charge of the Southern Group of the Russian Army, before becoming head of the Western Group in 1990.


The death of Kholodov, however, has thrown a black pall over Burlakov's reputation.


Kholodov, a reporter for the popular newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, was killed Oct. 17 by a briefcase bomb. A source familiar to Kholodov led him to the briefcase, indicating that it contained documents on illegal arms trading by the Western Group. Kholodov had been due to testify before the Duma on the subject of military corruption days after he was killed.


Immediately following the murder, Moskovsky Komsomolets editor Pavel Gusev slammed the military's highest authorities, saying "I am sure the clues of the murder will lead to the FSK (the Federal Counterintelligence Service), to Matvei Burlakov and personally to Grachev." Grachev has since sued the newspaper for libel.


In the days since Kholodov's death, it has become apparent that Yeltsin too was told that the Western Group had been involved in illegal arms deals, but that he ignored a report on the issue. Yury Boldyrev, the country's former chief inspector and now a deputy in the State Duma, told The Moscow Times that he "personally" informed the president on the matter.


The power and effect of potentially corrupt military leaders has not escaped a group of six former military officers who gathered Tuesday to accuse the Defense Ministry of using "outdated" and "totalitarian" methods to maintain their hold over the army.


"The armed forces have developed a dictatorship without any consideration of basic rights, in a model which could be transferred onto the whole of society," Vitaly Kovalevsky, a Moscow city duma deputy and leader of the organization Military for Democracy, told a press conference.