Putin Dismisses Police Chief Of Moscow District Hit By Rioting

Major General Aleksandr Podolny, the outgoing police chief of Moscow's Southern Administrative District.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed a number of senior Interior Ministry and police officers, including the police chief of a Moscow district hit by antimigrant rioting earlier this month.

Russian media reports said Putin signed the dismissals decree on October 29.

Among those dismissed was Major General Aleksandr Podolny, the police chief of Moscow's Southern Administrative District, which includes Biryulyovo, where the killing of a 25-year-old ethnic Russian -- allegedly by a migrant -- sparked the most violent antimigrant riots in the Russian capital in several years.

In the wake of the riots, the head of the Moscow police sacked the local Biryulyovo police chief and called for Podolny's dismissal.

Russian authorities have charged an Azerbaijani national, Orkhan Zeynalov, with the October 10 murder of Yegor Shcherbakov.

Zeynalov has pleaded not guilty.


Based on reporting by Interfax and RIA Novosti