MOSCOW, May 6 (RAPSI) – A court in Chita in Russia's Zabaikalye Territory has sentenced the former region’s health minister Mikhail Lazutkin to 12 years in prison for taking bribes, a news release published on the website of the regional Investigative Committee’s directorate reads.

Additionally, he has been fined 12 million rubles (about $185,000).

According to investigators, from 2014 to 2015, Lazutkin, being the health minister of the Zabaikalye Territory, received bribes from commercial firms’ top managers for the assurance of their victory at medical equipment supplies auctions.

Thus, he received 9 million rubles (about $140,000) in 2014; and 5.2 million rubles ($80,000) in 2015, the statement reads.