MOSCOW: Russia has sacked its chief prosecutor in what is seen as punishment for failing to tackle the country's endemic corruption.
Vladimir Ustinov was fired by the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, backing a recommendation from President Vladimir Putin the day before.
The sacking, by 140 votes to none, follows Mr Putin's criticism of law enforcement agencies in his state of the union speech last month when he complained about their inability to crack down on corruption.
The officials reasons however for the sacking are confused.
Council spokesman Oleg Yevstigneyev said Mr Ustinov was removed from his post because of health reasons, television reports showed senate officials saying that the presidential order for the removal sent from the Kremlin made no mention of any reason for the sacking.
Surveys by Transparency International show Russia has become more corrupt, not less, under Mr Putin's tenure, and is tied with Albania as Europe's most corrupt country. Tales of corruption are legion in modern Russia, with everything from a doctor's appointment to university entrance said to involve bribery.
One newspaper reported that its readers were more frightened of traffic police than thieves because their bribe taking was allegedly so endemic.
Following Mr Putin's speech, a mini-purge saw several law-enforcement officials axed in the past few weeks. Nevertheless, the removal of the portly Mr Ustinov came as a surprise. First appointed in 1999 under former president Boris Yeltsin, Mr Ustinov has shown himself ultra-loyal to the Kremlin. In the early part of the decade, he followed Mr Putin's policy of "a dictatorship of the law" by targeting super-wealthy tycoons, nicknamed the Oligarchs.
The most prominent, Boris Berezovsky, fled to asylum in Britain when he was summoned to answer questions in a fraud inquiry. Mr Berezovsky has since accused the investigation of being politically motivated.
Later Mr Ustinov handled the prosecution of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He was accused by Khodorkovsky supporters of running a political case without proper evidence in the trial, which ended with the magnate, once Russia's richest man, being sent to a Siberian prison camp.
Diplomats however say Mr Ustinov was never one of Mr Putin's inner circle, a tight group dominated by his former KGB colleagues.
Favourite to succeed him is ultra-loyal Putin aide Dmitry Kozak, who is currently the president's special envoy to southern Russia, a post that includes tackling the gruelling war in Chechnya.