Investigators from the Investigative Committee of Russia have detained Valentin Tsuprun, head of the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Construction-Road Machinery at the Ministry of Industry and Trade. According to RBC, the official has been charged with receiving a bribe on an especially large scale for "general patronage" of a commercial entity.
The detention, according to the publication, took place at Tsuprun's workplace. The Ministry of Industry and Trade confirmed the detention and stated that they are providing full assistance to the investigation, emphasizing the agency's intolerance for corruption.
Tsuprun headed the department responsible for developing state policy and regulatory legal framework in the field of agricultural, food, and road-building machinery, as well as for measures to support equipment manufacturers. Earlier, he called for discussing the increase in the recycling fee only in a closed mode and advocated for the complete closure of the market to foreign agricultural machinery.
This detention is the third at the Ministry of Industry and Trade since the summer of 2025. In November last year, Mikhail Kuznetsov, director of the Department of Machine Building for the Fuel and Energy Complex, was arrested, and in February 2026, Boris Kabakov, head of the Department of Shipbuilding Industry, was arrested. Both are involved in bribery cases on an especially large scale.
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