MOSCOW, April 21 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – Moscow's Khamovnichesky District Court extended until June 22 the house arrest of Vyacheslav Spitsyn, deputy head of the environmental standards and regulations department of environmental watchdog, Rosprirodnadzor, RAPSI reported on Tuesday from the courtroom.

Spitsyn is suspected of requesting over 1 million rubles ($19,400) for a positive assessment of a Transneft project in the Primorye Territory in the Russian Far East.

Oil pipeline operator Transneft said that Spitsyn had requested this sum for giving a positive review of a plan presented by Transneft Kozmino Port LLC to prevent oil spills in the port of Kozmino.

Upon receiving the request, Transneft’s security service and the Interior Ministry’s Moscow department for economic security and corruption joined forces to arrest Spitsyn as he was accepting the bribe on January 21.

Transneft is a large company operating 48,700 kilometers of oil pipelines. The government holds a controlling stake (78 percent) in the company, which corresponds to 100 percent of its voting shares. The company’s preference shares are held by private individuals.