Former Moscow police chief Vladimir Pronin, who was fired by the Kremlin after a police officer went on a shooting rampage last year, has a new job as an aide to Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin, who oversees the city's construction sector.
A spokeswoman for Resin said Friday that Pronin would serve as his unsalaried adviser. She declined to say in what capacity.
Resin, who is in charge of architecture, construction and development in Moscow, holds enormous financial sway over the city's multibillion-dollar construction industry, still lucrative despite an economic crisis. He is a close ally of Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
Pronin, a police veteran who is also a close ally of Luzhkov, was fired by President Dmitry Medvedev in April in the wake of a deadly shooting spree by a drunk policeman in a supermarket that killed two people and injured seven.
The officer, Major Denis Yevsyukov, was sentenced to life in prison last month on two counts of murder and 22 counts of attempted murder.
Pronin's new appointment could dent confidence in a Kremlin initiative to reform the country's widely distrusted, scandal-hit police force, said Dmitry Oreshkin, an independent political analyst.
He also said Pronin's appointment underscores the resilience of Russia's entrenched power structures.
"No one in power cares why he was fired. What happens in the police is being ignored," Oreshkin said.
Medvedev fired a slew of high-ranking police officers last month and promised stiff punishments for officers who break the law.
The Interior Ministry hinted that Pronin had a future role as a public servant last fall when First Deputy Minister Mikhail Sukhodolsky called him a "capable leader who could be useful, for instance, for City Hall."
(MT, Reuters)