MOSCOW, September 14 - RAPSI. A military court will hear a criminal case initiated against a retired colonel charged with "protecting" companies collecting space garbage, the Investigative Committee reports on Wednesday.

Investigation revealed that retired Space Forces Col. Konstantin Petrishchev provided protection between 2005 and 2009 to business entities collecting missile jettisonable parts from drop areas across Russia. The public contracts aggregate amount made up 56 million rubles ($2 million).

The colonel turned a blind eye to the volitions committed by businessmen in exchange for a total of 16 million rubles ($572,000) in bribes over the five years, while the total amount of the unexecuted works paid with public funds under sham contracts reached 23 million rubles ($822,000).

Petrishchev has been charged with attempted large-scale fraud using an official status and large-scale bribe-taking. He faces up to 10 years in prison.