MOSCOW, December 11 (RAPSI) – A court has sentenced ex-Mayor of Russia’s Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Vitaly Ivanenko to 5.5 years in high-security prison for taking bribes, according to a statement of the press service of the regional Investigative Committee’s Investigations Directorate.

He has been also fined 4 million rubles ($55,000).

According to the investigation, from January to April 2019, Ivanenko through mediators, including his brother, received a bribe totaling 700,000 rubles from a CEO of a commercial enterprise for creating conditions for the conclusion of municipal urban beautification contracts with the organization and common protection.

Moreover, in 2019, the defendant received 200,000 in bribes from a businessman through intermedia.

During the probe into the first criminal count it was revealed that the bribe reached 1.4 million rubles but a part of it was embezzled by the official’s relative.

The brother of Ivanenko received 3.5 years in penal colony and a 2.2 million-ruble fine.