Savelovsky court of Moscow arrested the director of the department of audit of state contracts of the Russian Defense Ministry Maxim Kuksin, reports Interfax. "The court granted the investigator's request for the election of a preventive measure against suspected Kuksin in the form of detention for a period of two months, that is, until September 17," the court spokeswoman Maria Mikhailova said.

Kuksin is suspected of receiving 11 million rubles. bribes (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code). He faces imprisonment for a term of 8 to 15 years.

The Ministry of Defense refrained from commenting. A former Defense Ministry official told Vedomosti that usually executives from this department are prosecuted for taking bribes when negotiating contracts for the supply of weapons and other property purchased by the Ministry of Defense. So, in 2015, the former director of this department, Dmitry Nedobor, was sentenced for 10 years for extorting bribes from a supplier of military communications systems, and in June the department head, Yuri Yefimov, for a bribe to agree on the price of equipment for chemical and biological reconnaissance.

 The Defense Ministry's website says that the state contract audit department is carrying out an expert assessment of the justification and preparation of conclusions on the value of state contracts, according to which the ministry acts as a government customer. According to the Ministry, from 2005 to 2014 Kuksin worked in senior positions in commercial companies. From 2014 to 2016, he headed the Directorate of Military-Economic Analysis of the State Arms Program and the State Defense Order. The director of the department of audit of state contracts of Kuksin was appointed a year ago.

The previous corruption scandal in the Ministry of Defense was associated with the name of ex-head of the property relations department of the Defense Ministry Eugenia Vasilyeva. In May 2015, the Presnensky Court of Moscow found her guilty of embezzling state funds and laundering them and sentenced Vasiliev to five years in prison.