President Dmitry Medvedev has appointed Sergei Umnov to head the St. Petersburg police after sacking the city's last top cop in a political shake-up in mid-February, the Kremlin press service announced Thursday.
Umnov, a 47-year-old major general, had previously been deputy head of the department, which also covers the rest of the Leningrad region.
The former head, Mikhail Sukhodolsky, lost his job following an investigation into the beating death of a 15-year-old boy while in custody, which came amid a long-running power struggle with Interior Ministry head Rashid Nurgaliyev.
Sukhodolsky had reportedly plotted to replace Nurgaliyev, his direct superior, after Sunday's presidential election and observers speculated that the boy's beating had been used as an excuse to force him out.
Police reform has been one of Medvedev's main policies in his presidential term and has had mixed results.
An October poll by state-owned pollster VTsIOM reported a 20 percent jump in public trust in the police since 2009. However, the Public Verdict watchdog's survey in November estimated that only 6 percent of citizens were satisfied with the police.
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