MOSCOW, October 14 (RAPSI) – The former head of Russia’s Udmurt Republic Alexander Solovyov has been sentenced to 10 years in a maximum security penal colony in a 140 million rubles (about $1.8 million) bribery case, the press-service of the Investigative Committee informs on Wednesday.

In the course of the probe Solovyov admitted guilt and cooperated with investigators; he presented detailed information about the crimes he had been charged with; nevertheless, he changed his position at the court hearings saying he did not commit bribery, the statement reads.

Ex-official was found guilty of bribe-taking on an especially large scale; in addition to the 10-year prison term he was also fined 275 million rubles (about $3.6 million at the current exchange rate).

According to the charging documents, in 2014-2016, Solovyov received bribes amounting to 140 million rubles from representatives of organizations behind the construction of bridge crossings over the Kama and Buy rivers in the Udmurt Republic.

On April 4, 2017, Solovyov was relieved of his position on decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin.