A Moscow court sentenced a State Duma member with the Communist Party to five years in prison Monday for the attempted sale of a seat in parliament.
Konstantin Shirshov was found guilty by the Moscow City Court of attempted fraud worth 7.5 million euros ($10 million), Gazeta.ru reported.
Shirshov had promised to get an unspecified Moscow region resident into the Duma during the 2011 vote on the ticket of the rival United Russia party, the report said.
But he had no means of securing the person a deputy's place, and simply planned to pocket the sum he had asked for, the court ruled.
The defense said it would appeal the verdict.
As a Duma deputy, Shirshov enjoyed parliamentary immunity from prosecution, but in a rare move for the legislative body, his colleagues stripped him of immunity in 2013.
