By Elena Teslova
MOSCOW (AA) - A Moscow court ruled on Thursday to place a senior Defense Ministry official in custody on charges of abusing his official powers in fulfilling the state defense order.
Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement that Vladimir Verteletsky, the head of Defense Ministry's department for implementing the state defense order was bribed to sign official papers confirming work under a contract was done so that the contractor could receive payment.
"At the request of the Investigative Committee, the court chose a preventive measure in the form of detention for Verteletsky," she said.
According to Petrenko, the official's actions caused the state damage of more than 70 million rubles ($775,000).
Searches and interrogations were conducted as part of the criminal case being pursued by military investigators.
Verteletsky is the fifth Defense Ministry official being arrested on corruption charges in a month. Earlier in the day, head of the Main Communications Department of the Russian Armed Forces, Vadim Shamarin, was detained for allegedly receiving a particularly large bribe.
Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu was replaced by Andrey Belousov, who specializes in economics, earlier this month.