Arrests of officials are on the rise, from governors to village council heads. The former head of a village council in Krasnoyarsk Krai was sentenced to six years in prison.
The court also stripped the former head Solontsovsky village council of Alexander Butsenets the right to hold positions in local government bodies for three years.
Butsenets was tried for abuse of office in the management of municipal land. The case was based on two incidents. The court asserted that in 2016, Butsenets sold the property to a former deputy. To Alexander Velker A plot of land in the Yemelyanovsky district—for 11 rubles, with a market value of 3,3 million. At the same time, he transferred a plot of land for residential development worth 82 million rubles to a local resident, with garages for only 2 million rubles.
Alexander Butsenets lost his position as head of the Solontsy Village Council, where he had served since the fall of 2015, in February 2024. Local residents had been demanding his resignation since 2022. They leveled a number of accusations against Butsenets. Specifically, the administration was failing to implement the municipal budget, roads in Solontsy were not maintained, and the housing and utilities sector had been "brought to a standstill."
In October 2021 and September 2023, Butsenets was accused of abuse of office, also related to the illegal sale of land plots at reduced prices. In November 2023, a court found him guilty of negligence for similar schemes, but he was released from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
In recent months, Russia has seen an increase in the arrests of high-ranking officials and officials in criminal cases related to corruption and embezzlement of public funds. Last week, Rostov region the head was detained Millerovsky district Oleg Kovalenko and the vice-governor Bryansk region Nikolai SimonenkoBoth were accused of abuse of office. The Minister of Trade was arrested in early July. Voronezh region Gennady Shvyrkov, in Novosibirsk - Minister of Industry and Trade Andrey Goncharov. And the mayor Krasnoyarsk Vladislav Loginov arrested on charges of accepting a bribe.