There is a contract: the Minister of Transport of Kuban was detained in a corruption case

Alexey Pereverzev, the head of the Ministry of Transport of the Krasnodar Territory, who was detained on suspicion of especially large-scale fraud, was sent to a pre-trial detention center until March 19. According to investigators, he is involved in an illegal scheme for the distribution of state road contracts — the damage was previously estimated at 2 billion rubles. On the day when the high-ranking official was searched, the governor of the Krasnodar Territory reassigned him to the post of Minister of Transport. The information about when Pereverzev will be able to take the chair of the head of the regional department, what punishment he faces and who else could be involved in the scheme is in the Izvestia material.

Why was the head of the Kuban Ministry of Transport detained?

Alexey Pereverzev, Minister of Transport and Road Management of the Krasnodar Territory, was arrested on January 22 as part of a criminal investigation into fraud on an especially large scale. According to investigators, the official is involved in an illegal scheme for the distribution of state road contracts. The amount of the theft was estimated at 2 billion rubles, a law enforcement source told TASS.

"A preventive measure in the form of detention has been chosen against Pereverzev. The duration of the measure is 1 month and 26 days, that is, until March 19, 2026. The accused was taken into custody in the courtroom," the united press service of the courts of the Krasnodar Territory reported.

The day before, on January 21, the Kuban Ministry of Transport was searched. After them, two deputies of Pereverzev, Alexander Dashuk and Alexey Smaglyuk, were detained on suspicion of embezzlement of budget funds in the execution of road maintenance contracts. Interestingly, on the same day, a message appeared on the website of the regional administration that Governor Veniamin Kondratiev had reassigned Pereverzev to the post of Minister of Transport and Road Management of the region.

Who else is involved in the case

Inspections in the Ministry of Transport of the Krasnodar Territory began after a lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation against former State Duma deputy Anatoly Voronovsky. Pereverzev's last name also appeared in the document.

From 2015 to 2017, Voronovsky served as the Minister of Transport of the region, then was elected vice-governor and deputy of the State Duma. The official, according to investigators, distributed government orders for the construction and repair of roads among a narrow circle of firms, bypassing competition, demanding money from contractors. By the way, Alexey Pereverzev, according to open sources, began his career in the Kuban administration in the same year 2015, heading the Department of the Department of Transport. In 2017, he took over the post of minister, replacing Voronovsky.

In mid-January 2026, the lawsuit was accepted for production by the Central District Court of Sochi. According to the Izvestia source, 30 people are involved in the case, including Alexander Karpenko, a deputy of the legislative Assembly of the Krasnodar Territory, and Andrei Doroshenko, a parliamentarian. According to the investigation, they were responsible for the distribution of work between contractors.

From the data of the Unified Information System in the field of procurement, it follows that in 2025 alone, the Kuban Ministry of Transport concluded more than 2 thousand contracts worth billions of rubles.

One of the main contractors of the Kuban Ministry of Transport was the Stroyyugregion company, which belongs to Alexander Karpenko. According to the Trading and Analytical Solutions System, in 2020 the company signed a contract with the ministry for 3 billion rubles for the construction of the Village of Chernigov — Dagomys village highway in the Absheron region, and in July 2025 it was allocated more than 1 billion more for the same purpose. In 2023, the company received more than 4 billion rubles for the construction of the Eastern Entrance to Krasnodar, as well as over 900 million rubles for the reconstruction of the bridge over the Laba River in the Ust-Labinsky district.

In February 2024, Stroyugregion was allocated more than 290 million rubles from the state budget for the reconstruction of the Stanitsa Dinskaya - Stanitsa Vasyurinskaya road section. And in 2025, the company received about 230 million for the implementation of "measures to ensure road safety."

What punishment can an official face?

If Alexei Pereverzev's guilt is proven in court, he faces up to ten years in prison under the article on fraud on an especially large scale, says Yuri Levin, a lawyer at branch No. 1 of the Moscow Regional Bar Association.

"It is unlikely that we should expect punishment at the lower level, given Pereverzev's position and the amount of damage," the expert believes. — The minister was involved in a case, the roots of which most likely grow from more high-profile corruption cases. Both subordinates of the minister and executive businessmen, as well as higher-ranking officials, could participate in these schemes.

According to Yuri Levin, the high-profile criminal case on corruption will probably not be limited to one episode. At the same time, the court's decision will depend on the role that Pereverzev could have played in the corruption scheme, Oleg Kim, partner of the Legal Advisor law office and lawyer of the Moscow Law Firm Grad, explained to Izvestia.

— The fact that he, being an official of a serious level, could use his official position will play against him. Moreover, the total damage of 2 billion rubles is several times higher than the minimum threshold for the article he is charged with," he said.

The court may reduce the sentence if the defendant confesses and agrees to cooperate with the investigation, for example, discloses the details of the corruption scheme and points to other participants, Oleg Kim believes.

— The organizers of the scheme will receive the most stringent deadlines, and the perpetrators, accomplices or instigators will receive deadlines, albeit not much, but lower. The punishment for owners of road companies may be tougher. Corruption structures, bribery, or money laundering can be identified. Taken together, this is likely to be a very serious punishment," the lawyer believes.

Continuation of the story

According to Oleg Kim, Pereverzev's arrest is a continuation of the trend that began in 2025, when several high—profile corruption schemes were uncovered in the Krasnodar Territory.

— High-ranking officials were sent into custody, billions of rubles were confiscated from them. This is not a new story, such schemes regularly pop up in different regions. Last year and the year before, for example, similar cases were recorded in the Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk regions. Such cases have been worked out for quite a long time — this is a planned cumulative work of law enforcement agencies," the expert said.

In 2025, the former vice‑governor of the region, Alexander Vlasov, was arrested in Kuban in a case of abuse of power and fraud, local media reported. And the ex-head of the Crimean region, Sergei Les, was detained while trying to escape from the operatives in a minibus — several kilograms of gold and 100 million rubles were found in the cabin.

In May 2025, Alexander Kainov, the first Deputy Minister of Natural Resources of the Krasnodar Territory, was accused of bribery. And the former vice‑governor for construction, Alexander Nesterenko, was detained on suspicion of abuse of office. In addition, the former head of Krymsk, Yanis Budagov, was accused of selling municipal land at an undervalued price - about 20 times. The investigation estimated the damage caused by the official's actions at almost 100 million rubles.

The fact that the problem of corruption in Kuban is acute is shown by a series of arrests, political analyst Dmitry Zhuravlev told Izvestia.

— These detentions may be indicative, but this, as a rule, does not affect the average official. Most people assume that "my neighbor was detained, but I wasn't, so I'm smarter." The only significant thing here is that some team is leaving: the big boss has been removed, and now his deputies and assistants are also being removed," the expert believes.

According to the political scientist, the governor of the Krasnodar Territory could have reassigned Pereverzev to the post of minister, despite the searches and the corruption scandal, because "he did not have full information."