Slideshow ( 2 images )

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court ordered on Monday that Nikita Belykh, the former governor of the Kirov region who has spent two months in custody on a charge of accepting a bribe, should be kept there until Dec. 24.

Belykh, who has described his arrest as unlawful, was dismissed from the post of governor by Russian President Vladimir Putin in July.

Once a leader of a liberal opposition party, the Union of Rightist Forces, he was one of the few provincial governors not to share Putin’s political views.

In late June, Russian investigators detained Belykh, saying they had caught him accepting a bribe of 400,000 euros ($452,720) in a Moscow restaurant.