MOSCOW, December 24 – RAPSI. Two high-ranking officials of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FPS) are suspected of extorting 2 million euros for a contract for the production of electronic monitoring bracelets, said Vladimir Markin, the Investigative Committee’s official spokesperson.

Alexander Tyurin, deputy head of the FPS economic security department, and Igor Fomenko, executive of the same department, demanded 80 million rubles ($2 million euros) from the contractor’s CEO.

Threatening the businessman with cancelling the contract, the FPS executives demanded the money, Markin said. In fact, the suspects had no powers over the contract’s termination or extension.

The suspects were detained on December 18.

Investigators said that the officials, who had inspected the FPS, discovered a number of faults with the production of electronic bracelets and found that the devices were unjustifiably overpriced.