Former acting Kursk Oblast Governor Alexei Smirnov sentenced to 14 years after admitting to bribes tied to embezzled funds for border fortifications against Ukraine's incursion
Alexei Smirnov, who served as acting Governor of Kursk Oblast from May to December 2024 — during which Ukrainian forces occupied part of the region in an August 2024 incursion — was arrested along with his first deputy Alexei Dedov on fraud charges over the embezzlement of more than 1 billion rubles (about $12 million) allocated for border-fortification construction via the Kursk Oblast Development Corporation. In April 2026 a Kursk court sentenced Smirnov to 14 years in a maximum-security prison and fined him 400 million rubles after he reached a plea agreement and admitted to receiving more than 20 million rubles in bribes from contractors; independent reporting noted the anti-tank barriers his administration oversaw later crumbled from rain and snow.