CHANGES HEADLINE, SPOT & LEDE; ADDS STATEMENT BY RUSSIA'S INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE; EDITS THROUGHOUT
By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - A Russian deputy chief of staff was detained by authorities over suspicion of large-scale bribe taking, the country's investigative body said on Thursday.
Vadim Shamarin, also the head of the army's Main Communications Directorate, was detained on Wednesday as a preventive measure after an investigation found he received 36 million rubles (almost $400,000) from two officials at a company developing and manufacturing hard-wire telephone devices, Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.
Petrenko said Shamarin received the bribe to "increase the volume of products supplied under government contracts for the needs of the Russian Ministry of Defense and general patronage."
"Shamarin disposed of the funds received at his own discretion," she said, adding that the two that bribed him are also in custody and facing criminal charges.
The development comes after the arrest of Ivan Popov, the former commander of the 58th Army of the Russian Armed Forces on suspicion of fraud case.
Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu was earlier this month replaced by Andrey Belousov, who specializes in economics.
In April, Shoygu’s deputy Timur Ivanov was arrested on corruption charge, while last week Yuriy Kuznetsov, a senior defence ministry official, was arrested in a bribery investigation.