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(From The Moscow Times)
Moscow Prosecutor Mikhail Avdyukov resigned Thursday after the General Prosecutor's Office found his office had covered up or fabricated evidence in 9,000 crimes, including at least 43 murders.
Hours after Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov accepted the resignation, he fired Avdyukov's deputy Yury Sinelshchikov and reprimanded another deputy, Anatoly Zuyev, along with four district prosecutors for failing to properly oversee investigations, a Prosecutor General's Office spokeswoman said.
The shake-up in the city prosecutor's office has the markings of a populist move ahead of December's parliamentary elections and the presidential vote in March.
"The coverup of crime has reached massive proportions," Prosecutor General's Office spokeswoman Natalya Vishnyakova said in televised remarks. "Besides, serious flaws were found in the work of every executive in the Moscow prosecutor's office."
She said a check by the Prosecutor General's Office found that city prosecutors had failed to properly investigate 9,000 crimes. She did not give any timeframe for the cases.
"Following our investigation, 15 criminal cases have been opened against police officers on charges of fabricating evidence," Vishnyakova said.