MOSCOW, May 13 (RAPSI) — The Abakan city court has sentenced former acting head of the Republic of Khakassia Sergey Novikov to 9 years in a strict regime colony for accepting a bribe in the amount of 2 million rubles (about $27,000) when organizing work on the construction of a neuropsychiatric residential facility, the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee informs on Thursday. 

The court has also fined the ex-official over 60.5 million rubles ($813,000 at the current exchange rate), and banned him from the right to hold state and municipal positions for a period of 5 years, the body said in the statement. 

The ex-official was found guilty of accepting a bribe on an especially large scale.

Investigative authorities and the court established that in December 2019 Novikov in his official capacity demanded a bribe in the amount of at least 12 million rubles ($160,000) from a potential contractor for the construction of the said facility in exchange for his assistance in winning the construction tender by this contractor, creating comfortable conditions for construction, as well as accepting the work performed.

In April 2020, the former official personally received 2 million rubles from the contractor as the first installment of the demanded sum of 12 million rubles, the statement reads.