The deputy governor of the Belgorod region, accused of corruption, pleaded not guilty

The deputy governor of the Belgorod region, Rustem Zainullin, who is accused of corruption crimes committed on a particularly large scale, pleads not guilty. This was announced on April 2 by his lawyer Denis Brudov.

"The Supreme Court will consider the prosecutor's motion to change the territorial jurisdiction," he added.

According to Izvestia, about 10 other persons are involved in the case of the defendant, who is also charged with committing particularly large embezzlement. The first meeting will be held on Monday, April 6.

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On the same day, a source from Izvestia told about the completion of the investigation into the embezzlement case during the construction of fortifications in the Belgorod region, in which Zainullin appeared. According to him, the fraud article was removed from the charges against the ex-deputy governor, leaving in force Part 4 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Receiving a bribe on an especially large scale") and part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code ("Embezzlement on an especially large scale").

The case was considered in accordance with the satisfied claim of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, which was submitted to the Ostankino Court of Moscow on October 4, 2025. The documents demanded to recover more than 924 million rubles from Zainullin, as well as businessmen Sergei Petryakov, Ivan Novikov, Konstantin Zimin and Dmitry Borovlev. In addition to the listed individuals, the defendants were also legal entities — the companies Region Siberia and Stroyinvestreserv.

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