Since then, the Kremlin has launched a sweeping corruption crackdown targeting top regional as well as military officials over the failure to stop the incursion, which came two-and-a-half years into Russia’s full-scale offensive on Ukraine.
Alexei Smirnov, the former Kursk governor, was “sentenced to 14 years in prison and (given) a fine of 400 million rubles ($5 million),” a Kursk court said in a statement following a trial on charges of bribe-taking.
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Smirnov was charged with receiving the equivalent of over $250,000 in kickback payments, along with two associates, for giving preferential treatment in assigning government fortifications contracts worth around $2.5 million in total.
According to the court, he pleaded guilty.
Another former Kursk governor — Roman Starovoyt, who led the region for five years until a few months before the Ukrainian breakthrough — died by suicide last year after being dismissed from his post as transport minister amid speculation he was also set to be arrested on corruption charges.
The Russian army pushed the Ukrainians out of Kursk in April 2025 with the help of thousands of North Korean troops.
AFP
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