Putin dismisses 2 police generals over journalist Golunov case

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed orders to dismiss two police generals, Andrey Puchkov and Yury Devyatkin, over the case of journalist Ivan Golunov, the Kremlin press service said on Thursday.

Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev earlier asked the president to sack them, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the petition “will be looked into in a timely fashion.”

Major-General Puchkov was the chief of Moscow’s Western Administrative District police force, which opened a criminal case against the investigative reporter. Major-General Devyatkin headed the Drug Control Directorate of the Moscow police. 

All charges against Golunov were dropped, and he was released from house arrest on June 11.