Ex-St Petersburg official admits to stadium embezzlement

Oganesyan was arrested in November 2016 over a fraud scheme with a firm that was supposed to provide the stadium with a video scoreboard.

"He arranged a payment of a deposit of 50.4 million rubles to the company that was diverted through shell companies," the local section of the committee said in a statement.

"Mr Oganesyan knew that the company TDM did not intend to spend this money for the electronic panel in the stadium."

The 68,000-capacity Saint Petersburg Stadium will host six matches at next year's World Cup, including the first semi-final on July 10.