Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed four new deputy interior ministers on Saturday, in a reshuffle that also saw the dismissal of the supervisor of the country’s much-publicized police reform.
Igor Zubov, Arkady Gostev, Yury Alexeyev and Mikhail Vanichkin were all named deputies to Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev.
Former deputy Sergei Bulavin, who was in charge of drawing up a bill last year which introduced a major shake-up of the country’s often-criticized police force, was sacked by a Kremlin decree on Saturday, alongside a number of other high-ranking officials.
Officers had been charged or convicted in the years leading up to that reform of numerous high-profile crimes, including a shooting spree in a Moscow supermarket, the beheading of a suspect, burning a suspect alive, and child sex abuse.
Interior Minister Kolokoltsev, who installed in the post last month, announced earlier this week plans to take the changes to “a new stage.”