MOSCOW, August 14 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court on Friday extended detention of Mikhail Popov, a former official of the Federal Agency for Affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Residing Abroad and International Humanitarian Co-Operation (Rossotrudnichestvo), in a 50-million-ruble (about $700,000) embezzlement case, the court’s press service told RAPSI.

He will stay detained until October 16.

On Thursday, the court extended detention of one more defendant, ex-Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Marina Lukashevich, for the same term.

According to materials read in the court, the case concerns the operation of the Science Development Center, which received 5 state contracts worth over 40 million rubles ($555,000 at the current exchange rate) in 2017.

Investigators believe that the company was founded for stealing the funds by then chief of the Rossotrudnichestvo science and education project realization department Mikhail Popov, a science and education project realization department of the Federal Agency for Affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Residing Abroad and International Humanitarian Co-Operation (Rossotrudnichestvo), who is also involved in the case. According to the investigation, Popov organized a tendering procedure to allow the Science Development Center win the tenders. Lukashevich was allegedly accepted the contracts. Under the concluded contracts, the company was to draft educational programs and conduct researches for the Science Ministry.