A major house-cleaning is expected at the Defense Ministry in the wake of sharp criticism of the Russian army's performance in Chechnya, according to military analysts and news reports.


Three of the ministry's top men, Boris Gromov, Valery Mironov and Georgy Kondratyev, are reportedly slated for early retirement. All hold the rank of deputy minister and all are generals.


The reports of the generals' impending ouster comes after an unusually turbulent few weeks for the army. Since the invasion of Chechnya began, one general effectively mutinied by refusing to advance on Grozny, another submitted his resignation and a third publicly criticized the Chechnya invasion.


In the face of the reports, the president's administration and the Defense Ministry have issued conflicting statements over the status of the military leadership during the last two days.


The expected dismissals, however, may actually strengthen the position of embattled Defense Minister Pavel Grachev. The reorganization may even be the result of an agreement between Grachev and President Boris Yeltsin.


"This is exactly what Grachev wanted from Yeltsin," said Andrei Penkovsky, the director of the Strategic Studies Center, a Moscow think tank.


Gromov and Mironov, Penkovsky said, have long been considered Grachev opponents, and each are said to be at the center of their own spheres of influence at defense headquarters. Their removal is politically expedient, Penkovsky said.


"Control of the Defense Ministry will now fall to people who are in Grachev's circle," Penkovsky said.


Gromov, who in 1989 led the Russian army out of Afghanistan, told a group of Afghan war veterans Monday that the war in Chechnya was a repeat of the mistake Russia made 15 years ago when it sent troops to Kabul.


"No one is drawing the right conclusions from the experience we had 15 years ago," Reuters quoted Gromov as saying. "The main thing I do not understand is for what reason our young and not so young people have to die."


Kondratyev, unlike the other two generals, is a close Grachev alley. He is being fired, Penkovsky said, for refusing to take over the invasion of Chechnya in the wake of army Deputy Commander Eduard Vorobyov's refusal to do the same. Kondratyev told Interfax on Monday he was shocked by reports of his resignation, and that the defense minister had not asked him to step down.


Defense Ministry officials Tuesday would not confirm the firings of the generals, saying that if they were to happen, the paperwork would come from the president's administration. But a ministry spokesman who did not give his name said a reshuffling seems to be in the offing, confirming a report in the newspaper Segodnya on Tuesday.


"In any case, it's not coming from us," he said. The president's press service said it had no information about the firing of the three deputy defense ministers. Monday, Interfax reported that the Defense Ministry was preparing decrees for Yeltsin's signature.


Tuesday's edition of Segodnya also said that Yeltsin delivered a scathing rebuke to Grachev and Interior Minister Viktor Yerin at a Monday meeting of the Security Council for not bringing events in Chechnya to a close sooner. The newspaper said the dressing-down came in language not suitable for print.


The situation could get worse, according to a U.S. intelligence report quoted in the Boston Sunday Globe. The report said the military campaign in Chechnya could trigger a significant shift in Russia's power structure, but did not say whether it would come in the form of a coup attempt or a constitutional realignment of power.