A Russian businessman charged with bribing senior Defense Ministry officials on behalf of suppliers has died in pretrial detention, according to a member of the country's human rights council.
Igor Kotelnikov, 52, died on July 8 after feeling unwell in the Moscow pretrial detention center, Yeva Merkacheva said. She did not give a cause of death but said he had been held in a part of the center that has tough conditions.
"Rights defenders, examining the pretrial detention center, repeatedly noted that these cells are packed with people. [The cells] are small, hot in warm weather, cold in the winter. In addition, some detainees sit there all day," Merkacheva wrote in a column for the popular daily Moskovsky Komsomolets.
She said that Kotelnikov's death was not the first in such cells and that other detainees have committed suicide.
Kotelnikov allegedly operated as a middleman in the bribery scheme that rocked the ministry earlier this year, leading to the arrest of former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov and two other businessmen. Kotelnikov denied the charges.
SEE ALSO: Senior Russian Military Official Held As Kremlin Continues Corruption SweepAccording to the Telegram channel CHEKA-OGPU, officials from the Federal Security Service (FSB) visited Kotelnikov in detention on several occasions to encourage him to finger Ivanov.
The channel claimed that when Kotelnikov refused, the FSB officials began pressuring him and later moved him to a punishment cell. CHEKA-OGPU is reportedly close to Russia’s security services.
According to the Telegram channel, prison doctors said Kotelnikov should not be held in a punishment cell due to chronic illness and had him sent back. However, prison officials, allegedly under FSB pressure, had him returned, CHEKA-OGPU said.
Ivanov, who oversaw the military-industrial complex for the ministry, was arrested in April on charges of taking more than 1 billion rubles ($11.4 million) in bribes from contractors. Ivanov, whose family flaunted its wealth, has denied the charges.
Businessmen Sergei Borodin and Aleksandr Fomin were also arrested in connection with the alleged bribery scheme.
Corruption in the Russian military allegedly flourished under former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who held the top post for more than a decade.
SEE ALSO: With Shake-Up, Putin Seeks The Upper Hand In Russia's Long, Costly War On UkraineRussian President Vladimir Putin in May replaced Shoigu with Andrei Belousov, an economist and former deputy prime minister, reportedly in part to improve the efficiency of defense spending.
Russia is set this year to spend tens of billions of dollars, or 6 percent of GDP, on defense as its invasion of Ukraine continues into its third year.