MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's prime minister fired the head of the Federal Customs Service and two of his deputies Friday as investigators sought to unravel the dealings of the agency.
Mikhail Fradkov sacked FCS chief Alexander Zherikhov and his deputies, Leonid Lozbenko and Yury Azarov, while prosecutors said they were investigating 20 cases against senior customs and economics ministry officials.
The dismissals came after the Kremlin press office said Thursday that the Federal Customs Service would be transferred from the Economic Development and Trade Ministry to the control of the government, which would decide on the appointment and dismissal of the service's director and deputies.
The president tasked the government with drafting legislative amendments within a month.
While introducing the new FCS head, Andrei Belyaninov, Fradkov said: "By combining legislative and law-enforcement powers, the FCS, we believe, will become more efficient."
He added the move would also help curb corruption in customs ranks.
Belyaninov is a former KGB officer and previous head of Rosoboronexport, the country's main arms exporter. Since 2004 he had been head of the federal agency overseeing the national defense order.
Prosecutors in Moscow, the central Russian regions of Bryansk and Kaluga, and in the Siberian region of Novosibirsk are looking into the local customs bodies' permission to sell a total of 1,700 metric tons of allegedly fake Georgian and Moldovan wine.
Prosecutors also said several economics ministry officials were under investigation on suspicion of granting quotas and licenses on imports of 75,000 metric tons of meat under lower customs duties. The ministry calculates the quotas on data provided by the customs service.
Prosecutors said the damage they had inflicted on the country stood at over 27 million euros (about $35 mln). The officials have reportedly been fired already.
"High-ranking customs officials have been identified as using their positions to help create conditions for the organization of contraband channels in the interests of unscrupulous businessmen involved in foreign trade," a source close to investigation said.
A number of senior offices were also sacked Friday in the Interior Ministry, Federal Security Service, and Prosecutor General's Office in a major anti-corruption shakeup initiated by the president.
