Former Defense Ministry official Yevgenia Vasilyeva expressed her dissatisfaction with the conditions of the local pre-trial detention center where she is currently serving her sentence, lamenting the lack of manicure supplies and a thin mattress, BBC Russian news agency reported Wednesday.
The Federal Service for Penitentiaries responded to the plea by providing her with an extra blanket.
Her mattress met the basic requirements and was not replaced, while manicure supplies were not on the list of allowed items, Federal Penitentiary officials reported to the Russian media.
“All the cells are equipped in accordance with the Ministry of Justice' orders and correspond with the standards of European penitentiaries (4 square meters per person),” Valery Maximenko, acting deputy head of Federal Penitentiary Service, was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.
Vasilyeva, who was an aide to former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, is currently being held in a cell designed for four inmates.
Vasilyeva was found guilty of fraud and money laundering last week and will serve 2 1/2 years of a five-year sentence in prison. She was credited the remaining 2 1/2 years because of the time she spent under house arrest leading up to her trial and conviction.
Vasilyeva and four others who worked under her at at the state-run Oboronservis holding, where she controlled the sale of Defense Ministry property, were found guilty of selling the property too cheaply and depriving the state of 3 billion rubles ($60 million)
The fraud, which was discovered in 2012, led to the resignation of both Vasilyeva and her boss Serdyukov.
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