Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree dismissing Alexander Kalashnikov, director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN).

“To release Kalashnikov Alexander Petrovich from the post of director of the Federal Penitentiary Service,” says the text of the document, which comes into force from the date of its signing. By another decree, the president appointed Arkady Gostev, who had previously been deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to this position.

Kalashnikov is 57 years old, he was appointed head of the Federal Penitentiary Service on October 8, 2019, and since 1987 he served in the state security agencies, including the head of the FSB departments in the Komi Republic and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

The new head of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Arkady Gostev, is 60 years old; he began his career in the internal affairs bodies in 1981 in Moscow and rose from an investigator to the head of the department for the investigation of organized criminal activities of the investigative department of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Southern Administrative District of the capital. Since 2006, Gostev has served as the head of the public order department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate in Moscow, since June 2010, he worked as the deputy head of the capital’s headquarters. In June 2012, he was appointed Deputy Minister of the Interior.

The reason for these personnel changes is not given in the decree of the head of state.