Former vice-governor of the Belgorod region Zainullin was sentenced to 20 years.

A court in Moscow has sentenced former vice-governor Rustem Zainullin to 20 years in prison in a case of embezzlement during the construction of fortifications in the Belgorod region. His lawyer Denis Brudov informed Izvestia about this on July 29.

According to Izvestia, Zainullin is charged with receiving a particularly large bribe and especially large embezzlement. At the same time, the fraud article was excluded from the charges. The former official pleaded not guilty.

"We consider the verdict too harsh and cruel, biased, unfair. The trial was short—lived, with constant statements from prosecutors and the judge about the need to shorten the procedural time frame for consideration of the case. <...> We will naturally appeal," Brudov said.

The court also sentenced the former deputy head of the region, Vladimir Bazarov, to 19 years in prison. Seven more defendants in the case received from 10 to 20 years in prison.

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Zainullin became a defendant in the case of embezzlement of funds during the construction of fortifications in the Belgorod region back in the fall of 2025. Then representatives of the Ostankino Court of the capital satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation in the amount of over 924 million rubles.

The defendants were also businessmen Sergey Petryakov, Ivan Novikov, Konstantin Zimin and Dmitry Borovlev from individuals and companies Region Siberia and Stroyinvestreserv from legal entities. The charges against the deputy governor were filed on April 2, 2026. He did not admit his guilt.