MOSCOW, July 20 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has relieved Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Marina Lukashevich detained in a fraud case of her post, according to the official website of legal information.

On July 6, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow placed Lukashevich in detention until August 16. According to materials read in the court, the case concerns the operation of the Science Development Center, which received 5 state contracts worth over 40 million rubles ($555,000 at the current exchange rate) in 2017.

Investigators believe that the company was founded for stealing the funds by Mikhail Popov, a science and education project realization department of the Federal Agency for Affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Residing Abroad and International Humanitarian Co-Operation (Rossotrudnichestvo), who is also involved in the case. According to the investigation, Popov organized a tendering procedure to allow the Science Development Center win the tenders. Lukashevich was allegedly accepted the contracts. Under the concluded contracts, the company was to draft educational programs and conduct researches for the Science Ministry. 

Lukashevich pleads not guilty and believes an examination submitted to court was made by unskilled experts.