MOSCOW, March 13 (Reuters) – The ⁠deputy ⁠head of ⁠Russia’s Star City, a settlement near ​Moscow that hosts the country’s main ‌space training facility, has ‌been detained along with ⁠six ⁠associates on suspicion of bribery, state news agency ​TASS reported on Friday.

According to RIA news agency, in January the mayor of ​Star City Yevgeny Barishevsky was detained on ⁠suspicion ⁠of accepting a ⁠bribe ​of 365,000 roubles ($4,557) and put under house arrest.

Investigators ​said on ⁠Friday that the inquiry had established that between 2023 and 2025 the mayor and his deputy ⁠received several bribes from businessmen, both directly and through ⁠intermediaries, in exchange for favourable outcomes in the awarding of municipal contracts.

The total amount involved exceeded 9.9 million roubles ($123,602).

Star City lies about an hour’s drive northeast of the Kremlin. For decades, the town ⁠did not appear on maps, with its location revealed only after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

($1 = ​80.0955 roubles)

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov; Editing ​by Mark Trevelyan)

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