A growing number of Russian regional officials are facing criminal investigations as authorities intensify a crackdown on alleged corruption across regional governments.
At least 28 high-ranking officials, including regional ministers, vice governors and their deputies, have come under investigation on charges ranging from bribery and fraud to embezzlement and abuse of office since the start of the year, according to data compiled by the independent Telegram news channel ChTD.
A large number of these investigations center on the construction of defensive fortifications in Russian regions bordering Ukraine.
The arrests continued this week, with Maxim Yegorov, the former governor of the Tambov region who stepped down last November, arrested Wednesday on suspicion of accepting bribes.
The same day, investigators in the Chelyabinsk region arrested Eldar Belousov, the regional minister for state property management; Roman Menzhinsky, chief of staff to the governor; and former Vice Governor Alexander Bogashov.
All three face criminal charges of abuse of official authority carried out by a group for personal gain, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Authorities in April launched a high-profile case against former Kursk region Governor Alexei Smirnov and his deputy Alexei Dedov, who resigned in late 2024.
Both men were detained on suspicion of defrauding the state during the construction of border fortifications in the Kursk region, parts of which were seized by Ukrainian forces in a bold cross-border offensive last August.
Smirnov and Dedov in their testimonies cited former Kursk region Governor Roman Starovoit, who was found dead in an apparent suicide shortly after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him from his post as transportation minister in early July.
A widening probe into similar projects in the neighboring Belgorod region has also resulted in multiple arrests.
On Sunday, investigators placed former regional capital construction chief Alexei Soshnikov and two subordinates, Larisa Streletskaya and Andrei Reshetko, in pre-trial detention on suspicion of large-scale embezzlement.
Earlier, Vice Governor Rustem Zainullin and two businessmen, Ivan Novikov and Konstantin Zimin, were also arrested in connection with the alleged theft of budget funds allocated for defense infrastructure.
Authorities in the Bryansk region arrested Vice Governor Nikolai Simonenko on Thursday on accusations of abuse of office in connection with fortification construction. A Moscow court ordered him held in custody until at least Sept. 21.
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