MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/. A Moscow court on Monday sanctioned a two-month arrest of the current mayor of Zvyozdny Gorodok northeast of Moscow, the home of the Cosmonaut Training Centre, on corruption charges.
"The court has ruled to arrest Alexander Shchipanov, born in Zhitomir, Ukraine, the head of administration of the Moscow region’s Zvyozdny Gorodok, who is suspected of committing corruption-related crimes, for a term of two months, or till December 23," the press service of Moscow’s Babushkinsky district court told TASS.
A criminal case was opened against Shchipanov and Andrey Denisov, chief inspector of territorial security department at the Zvyzdny Gorodok administration. According to investigators, Shchipanov extorted a bribe of three million rubles ($47,700) from a businessman in exchange of an investment contract for overhauling a shopping mall with subsequent long-term privileged lease.
On October 23, Denisov, acting as a go-between, received 250,000 rubles as part of a bribe. A fifth part of the sum were real banknotes while the rest were a carny roll. Later, Denisov put the money into the glove box of Shchipanov’s service car. At this point, the latter was detained by security officers.