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- Protective robbery: ex-head of the Kursk region was asked for 15 years in prison for bribes
Protective robbery: ex-head of the Kursk region was asked for 15 years in prison for bribes
The prosecutor's office has requested 15 years in prison for the former governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov. On April 2, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk began considering the case of the ex-official, who is accused of several episodes of multimillion—dollar bribes during the construction of protective structures on the border with Ukraine. Smirnov entered into a pre-trial agreement, so his case was considered in a special order, in one session. At the same time, cooperation with the investigation should have mitigated the punishment, the lawyers noted. The former official will be sentenced on April 6. Earlier, Deputy Governor Alexei Dedov was sentenced to 19 years in a penal colony in the same case.
Why did the ex-governor receive bribes?
On April 2, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk held the first hearing in the case of the former governor of the region, Alexei Smirnov. He was accused of accepting bribes worth about 30 million rubles during the construction of fortifications on the border with Ukraine.
Former Governor of the Kursk region Alexey Smirnov at a meeting in the Leninsky District Court of Kursk
Smirnov concluded a pre-trial cooperation agreement with the prosecutor's office, which provides for the consideration of the criminal case in a special manner. This means that during the process, witnesses are not questioned, evidence is not examined, etc. Therefore, at the very first meeting, the prosecutor requested 15 years in prison for the ex-official.
Smirnov, along with his deputy Alexei Dedov, were detained in April 2025 as part of a criminal investigation into the embezzlement of budget funds in the amount of more than 1 billion rubles through the Kursk Region Development Corporation, the Interior Ministry reported.
Vladimir Lukin, the former director general of this structure, who was also arrested in the case, testified against the ex-governor, the source told Izvestia.
According to the investigation, Smirnov, along with Dedov, received a bribe of 12.9 million rubles through an intermediary for the general patronage of Stroitechnogroup and Euroclimat 2000 companies. In addition, they extorted and received 8 million rubles from CPC Service LLC. After that, Smirnov and Dedov instructed officials of the Kursk Region Development Corporation to conclude contracts with this company for the construction of fortifications for 192 million rubles, according to the case file.
In February 2026, at a court hearing, Smirnov also confirmed that his predecessor as governor, and later the Minister of Transport of Russia, Roman Starovoit, had also taken bribes as part of the implementation of this project (in July 2025, he committed suicide).
The total amount of illegal remuneration received by Smirnov, Starovoit and Dedov during transactions for the construction of fortifications in the region and the restoration of the Donetsk People's Republic amounted to about 130 million rubles, the court heard.
At a meeting on April 2, Smirnov fully agreed with the charges, noting that he had never asked the contractors for money. According to him, these were "their voluntary wishes."
— I admit my guilt completely. I regret it," the official said.
The lawyers asked for a punishment below the lowest limit, the court's press service told Izvestia.
"The defendant was very brief in the debate, supporting the position of his defenders, who, among other things, asked for a sentence below the lowest limit provided for by the sanction of the article," they added.
The state prosecution demanded that Smirnov be sentenced to 15 years in a high-security penal colony, fined 500 million rubles and his assets confiscated for 20.9 million. The verdict is scheduled for April 6, 2026.
Alexey Dedov's case was considered in court earlier. At the end of March, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison to serve his sentence in a high-security penal colony and fined 500 million rubles.
Who else was arrested in the case
A large-scale wave of detentions of officials and businessmen associated with the Kursk Region Development Corporation and the construction of protective structures began in December 2024.
Igor Grabin, the former deputy general director of the corporation, was the first to be arrested. He was charged under the article on abuse of authority, unjustified embezzlement of budget funds and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Igor Grabin, ex-Deputy General Director of Kursk Region Development Corporation, who is being tried in the case of embezzlement of 152 million rubles during the construction of fortifications.
Soon, the corporation's CEO, Vladimir Lukin, was arrested. He was charged under the same article for the fact that in 2023 he instructed a subordinate to conclude a contract with a commercial company for the production of work that had already been performed by another company and received full payment for it. According to the prosecutor's office, the damage to the regional budget exceeded 173 million rubles. Lukin was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony.
In January 2025, Denis Fedorov, director of Trading House Kursk LLC, was arrested. According to investigators, he acted together with accomplices Maxim Voronin and Vladimir Konoplev from Energosystem LLC. In 2022, businessmen's firms received contracts for the construction and staffing of defense lines in the Kursk region. After receiving the budget tranches, they squandered some of the money, using cheaper materials and equipment in their work and overestimating their cost in the acceptance documents. The Interior Ministry's investigative department estimated the damage at 141.7 million rubles. This amount was collected from the entrepreneurs in solidarity. They were sentenced to terms ranging from nine to ten years in prison.
The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation has filed a lawsuit to recover 3 billion rubles of damage suffered by the state during the construction of protective structures on the border with Ukraine. According to the SOE, from 2022 to 2023, the federal budget allocated 19.4 billion rubles to the Kursk region for this project. Since October 2022, a special regime has been introduced in the region: purchases could be made without tenders and auctions.
Alexey Smirnov chose Kursk Region Development Corporation JSC, a structure created by the regional government at the expense of budgetary funds, as the chief executive. According to the materials of the Prosecutor General's Office, the corporation's management — CEO Vladimir Lukin, his deputies Igor Grabin and Snezhana Martyanova — independently selected contractors and authorized payment for work. However, they inflated prices, helped their people, profiting from the budget.
For this purpose, ex-deputy of the regional Duma Maxim Vasiliev, ex-deputy Yuri Bessonov, who was Martianova's brother, businessman Ivan Utkin were involved — his company Techimpex took 1.3 billion rubles under six contracts. In 2022-2023, the corporation concluded 23 contracts worth 3.2 billion rubles. Vasiliev, Bessonov, Martianova, Fedorov and Utkin gave Lukin, Grabin and Martianova 25% of this amount for their help.
In March 2025, the court granted the claim of the Prosecutor General's Office and recovered more than 4.1 billion rubles from former officials and heads of the Kursk Region Development Corporation.
Why is the prosecutor's office asking for harsh punishment
The 15 years of imprisonment requested by the prosecutor for Alexey Smirnov is an excessively harsh punishment, says Veronika Polyakova, managing partner of the Business Legal Group Bar Association.
"Alexey Smirnov and Alexey Dedov fully admitted their guilt and entered into a pre—trial cooperation agreement with the investigation, which should result in a sentence not exceeding 2/3 of the maximum term of imprisonment, that is, ten years," she said.
According to lawyer Vladimir Sobolev, the prosecutor's office could consider that the accused did not fulfill his role within the framework of the agreement, therefore he does not deserve any leniency.
The court will not take into account Smirnov's statement that he did not ask for bribes from contractors, but they gave him the money voluntarily, lawyer Maxim Silvestri believes.
— There are episodes of receiving bribes, the investigation has proved. And the fact that the money was allegedly transferred under the pretext of a voluntary donation is not valid," he explained.
However, the court may recognize Alexei Smirnov's statement as a mitigating circumstance that he took bribes under pressure from the leadership, that is, Roman Starovoit, Albert Khaleyan noted.
— If the court comes to the conclusion that there was an irresistible compulsion on the part of the leadership, which completely deprived Smirnov of free will, then what he did may not be recognized as a crime. However, it is extremely difficult to prove this in practice," the expert said.
According to Albert Khaleyan, partner of the Moscow Bar Association Vector Prime, the fact that the contractor "voluntarily" handed over money does not exclude Smirnov's responsibility.
— The key is the very fact of receiving money in the line of duty. The initiative of the contractors is not a circumstance mitigating his responsibility," the expert noted.
He added that companies can also be criminalized for handing over bribes. The maximum penalty for this crime is 15 years in prison.
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