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The Transportation Ministry said Tuesday that it had recommended that the head of the state transport watchdog be dismissed following a series of fatal airline crashes.

President Vladimir Putin ordered his ministers to conduct an urgent review of aviation safety after a spate of crashes.

Transportation Minister Igor Levitin asked Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to approve the firing of Valery Saleyev, head of the Federal Transportation Inspection Service, whose functions include supervising the aviation industry.

«The minister said some time ago that there will be personnel changes in the sector», Levitin aide Svetlana Kryshtanovskaya said. «I would not talk about a direct link to the air crashes, but they did expose a whole series of shortcomings in the work of several agencies, including [the inspection service]».

In May, 113 people died when an Armenian A320 crashed into the Black Sea near Sochi. In July, an S7 A310 crashed in Irkutsk, killing 125 people. The next month, a Pulkovo Airlines Tu-154 crashed in eastern Ukraine, killing 170.