MOSCOW, May 13 (RIA Novosti) - The dismissal of the top U.S. general in Afghanistan earlier this week was not due to changes in Washington's policy in the country, a Russian military analyst said on Wednesday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates dismissed Gen. David D. McKiernan on Monday as commander of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan, saying "fresh thinking" was needed in military intelligence collection and organizational changes.

"The dismissal was driven by internal Defense Department reasons," Pavel Zolotaryov, an analyst at Russia's U.S. and Canada Institute, was quoted by the polit.ru online edition as saying.

"Policies in Afghanistan have not been determined by the military," he said.

Zolotaryov acknowledged that there has been a shift in U.S. polices in Afghanistan from traditional army tactics to the use of counterinsurgency methods, and support in establishing civic institutions.

He said that after the 1980s war against the mujahideen, the Soviet Union also moved to curb drug production in Afghanistan, in a bid to reorient the country to traditional economic activities.