Russia jails defence official for seven years on bribery charge

A former Russian defence official was convicted on Friday of taking bribes and sentenced to seven years in a penal colony, state news agency TASS said.

Andrei Chekmazov, a reserve colonel, was accused of accepting kickbacks worth more than 16 million roubles ($188,000) from the head of a company which had received contracts from the defence ministry.

While waging a war in Ukraine that is now into its fourth year, President Vladimir Putin has launched a drive to punish corruption in the armed forces, leading to a rash of prosecutions. More than a dozen people have been arrested in the past 12 months.

In the most prominent of a series of scandals, former deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov went on trial in Moscow last month, accused along with a former subordinate of embezzling 4.1 billion roubles ($48.1 million).