Putin Fires Handful Of Russian Officials

Russian President Vladimir Putin at a United Russia party congress in Moscow in August

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed a number of top officials at the Interior Ministry, Investigative Committee, and Federal Service of Corrections, according to the Kremlin's official website.

Putin signed decrees on December 4 firing the chief of passport control and registration at the Federal Migration Service, Major General Mikhail Utyatsky, and the deputy chief of Russia's Federal Service of Corrections, Aleksei Velichko.

Putin also fired the head of the special equipment and communications department at the Interior Ministry, the chief of the Investigative Committee's directorate in Kirov Oblast, the deputy head of the Interior Ministry's main directorate in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, and the deputy head of the Interior Ministry's main directorate in Samara Oblast.

The presidential administration's website gave no details to explain the decisions behind the dismissals.