Putin’s ex-minister sentenced to eight years for taking bribe

A Russian court on Friday sentenced former economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev to eight years in a penal colony after convicting him for taking a bribe from an ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Ulyukayev, the highest-ranking official arrested in Putin's 17 years in power, must also pay a fine of 130 million roubles ($2.2 million), judge Larisa Semyonova said.

"Ulyukayev is guilty of having taken a bribe as he carried out official duties," said the judge of the Moscow court.

Ulyukayev demanded the money in India's Goa where he was on a working trip, after his ministry approved the sale of a government stake in oil firm Bashneft to Rosneft, the judge added.

Court bailiffs put handcuffs on Ulyukayev and escorted him to a cage in the courtroom after the presiding judge had pronounced the sentence.

Prosecutors earlier called for him to face 10 years in a "harsh regime" prison colony for taking the bribe from Igor Sechin, head of the state oil giant Rosneft, in a sting operation.

Ulyukayev, who became economic development minister in 2013, was arrested at Rosneft's headquarters last year after being handed a bag containing $2 million by Sechin, who had asked security forces to set up a sting.

Sechin told investigators that Ulyukayev had demanded the bribe in return for backing a controversial deal in which Rosneft acquired a stake in Bashneft, another state-run oil group.

"Like death sentence"

Ulyukayev had originally opposed the sale of the stake to Rosneft but later endorsed it after Putin said it would help fill state coffers.

Ulyukayev has denied the charge, saying that he believed the bag contained expensive wines that Sechin had promised him to celebrate the deal.

The prosecution did not provide any proof that Ulyukayev opened the bag of marked notes and therefore knew he was receiving a bribe.

Sechin has failed to attend court hearings despite being summoned as a witness.

Most of Russia's penal colonies are in remote locations and offer prisoners little contact with families, Ulyukayev had earlier said sentence in these camps would effectively be death sentence.