Russian Judge Sentences Former Sochi Mayor to 15 Years in Prison for Corruption

A Moscow judge has sentenced the former mayor of the Black Sea resort city of Sochi to 15 years in maximum-security prison for corruption, state media reported Monday, citing the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office. Alexei Kopaygorodsky, 41, served as mayor from September 2019 until May 2024, when he abruptly resigned, citing a transition to a federal post. After the transfer failed to materialize, Kopaygorodsky joined a volunteer army battalion fighting in Ukraine. He was arrested in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine in September 2024 and transferred to Moscow, where prosecutors sought 21 years in prison for him and 16 years for his wife. The Meshchansky District Court found Kopaygorodsky guilty of receiving large-scale bribes, embezzling municipal property and laundering criminal proceeds, according to Interfax. His wife Yanina Kopaygorodskaya was sentenced to 10 years in prison for serving as an accomplice, while her assistant Alexander Pasunko was fined 190,000 rubles ($2,200). Kopaygorodsky and his wife were also ordered to pay fines of half a billion rubles ($5.9 million) each. In addition, the former mayor was stripped of his state medal, banned from holding public management roles for 14.5 years and will face three additional years after his prison term. Prosecutors accused Kopaygorodsky of embezzling two municipal land plots and concealing their origin, as well as accepting more than 319 million rubles ($3.7 million) in bribes from business leaders and developers in exchange for favors and protection in 2022-24. Kopaygorodskaya was also accused of threatening one witness in order to receive false testimony and bribing another witness through Pasunko with half a million rubles ($5,900) while under house arrest. Both denied the charges. Earlier in January, a Sochi court seized the family’s assets worth more than 1.6 billion rubles ($18.8 million). Kopaygorodsky is among at least 10 current and former deputy governors who have faced criminal prosecution since Veniamin Kondratyev became Krasnodar region governor in 2015.