Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov said the dismissal of Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov followed a request from President Vladimir Putin, but that Ustinov had asked to be removed from the post.
"The president called me to his office yesterday and handed me a note on the dismissal of Vladimir Vasilyevich Ustinov," Mironov said today. "From our conversation I understood that it was a technical decision, if one could say so. There is no politics here."
The Federation Council voted 140-0 with two abstentions to approve the measure.
Russian media said Ustinov's dismissal came as a surprise. He became prosecutor-general in 2000, when Putin nominated him for the post.
His dismissal today follows criticism by Putin that the country is failing to combat corruption, and the firing of a number of law enforcement officials last month.
Deputy Prosecutor-General Yury Biryukov has been named acting prosecutor-general.
(compiled from agency reports)
COVERAGE IN RUSSIAN: To read RFE/RL's Russian Service coverage of Ustinov's dismissal in Russian, click here.