The person involved in one of the most high-profile corruption scandals in Russia – the former head of the Sakhalin region Alexander Khoroshavin – was sentenced to 15 years in a strict regime colony. This is the second term – he received 13 years in prison in 2018.

The Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City Court found the former governor guilty in a second corruption case and sentenced him to 15 years in a strict regime colony and a fine of 500 million rubles.

15 years is the final punishment, follows from the sentence. “By partial addition of the sentence imposed with the sentence of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk city court in February 2018,” it says. The prosecution asked for a total term for Khoroshavin in two cases of 17.5 years of strict regime.

Alexey Leskin, former vice-mayor of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, who was involved in the same case, received nine years in a strict regime colony.

In the second criminal case, Khoroshavin was charged with 17 episodes of taking bribes (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and two episodes of preparing to receive bribes (part 1 of article 30, part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The judge announced the verdict for Khoroshavin and Leskin within four days, Sakh.com reports.

According to investigators, a group of officials led by Khoroshavin in 2014 organized the receipt of bribes in the amount of 2 million to 10 million rubles from people who wanted to participate in the elections of deputies of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk City Duma. “In total, the attackers received more than 100 million rubles,” the prosecutor’s office reported.

The ex-mayor of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Andrei Lobkin and the former deputy head of the apparatus of the governor and government Anatoly Makarov were also involved in the case. They left Russia.

Lobkin, according to media reports, left for the United States. Political technologist Makarov was detained in December 2018 in Tbilisi, but in the summer of the following year, as Sakh.com wrote, he was released due to deteriorating health. Another defendant in the case, Vyacheslav Gorbachev, who headed Khoroshavin’s secretariat, received a suspended sentence in the fall of 2019.

According to the investigation, the officials asked for bribes not only out of selfish motives, but also to ensure “financing of political technologies” – that is, to win loyal candidates and representatives of United Russia, to which Khoroshavin belonged, Kommersant wrote.

The governor of Sakhalin was detained in early March 2015. At the end of March, the President of Russia signed a decree on his early resignation due to the loss of confidence.

On February 9, 2018, the same Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk city court delivered a verdict in the first case of Khoroshavin. He found Khoroshavin guilty of accepting bribes and legalizing criminal proceeds (Article 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) as part of a criminal group and sentenced him to 13 years in prison in a strict regime colony. As now, the former governor was then fined 500 million rubles, and also deprived of state awards.

According to investigators, the former governor and his subordinates received bribes from entrepreneurs totaling 522 million rubles.

Khoroshavin was accused of having, together with his accomplices, received large sums from eight businessmen from various fields since 2009, from fishing and agriculture to transportation and construction. Most of all, according to investigators, Khoroshavin was paid by businessman Nikolai Kran, whose company was building the fourth power unit of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinskaya CHPP-1.

Khoroshavin pleaded not guilty.

The court began considering the second criminal case of Khoroshavin in the fall of 2020.

In February, the former governor delivered his last word and stated that he “did not commit these crimes”: “There was no OPG [organized criminal group], there were no bribes, please justify.”

During the announcement of the final part of the verdict on Thursday, Khoroshavin read the book and did not stop, writes Sakh.com. The former governor is finishing reading “White Clothes” by Vladimir Dudintsev, the publication clarifies.

Since 1996, in Russia, criminal cases have been initiated against 34 heads of regions, including 19 acting governors, TASS calculated last March, when another governor, the head of the Penza region, Ivan Belozertsev, was detained. He was also accused of taking bribes, like other arrested governors.

In particular, in February 2021, the former head of Mari El, Leonid Markelov, was given 13 years in prison, in October 2020, the former head of Udmurtia, Alexander Solovyov, received 10 years, and in July 2019, the former head of Komi, Vyacheslav Gaizer, was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

On July 9, 2020, Governor of the Khabarovsk Territory Sergey Furgal was detained on suspicion of organizing murders and organizing an attempted murder. His arrest sparked protests in the region.

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