Russia jails former governor for 14 years over kickbacks

In this handout photograph posted on the official Telegram channel of the United Press Service of the Judicial System of the Kursk Region on April 6, 2026, former governor of Russia's Kursk region Alexei Smirnov, who was arrested along with his ex-deputy on suspicion of embezzling over $12 million of funds earmarked for border defences with Ukraine, listens to his verdict at the Leninsky District Court of the city of Kursk. [AFP]

Russia on Monday jailed a former governor of the Kursk border region, where Ukraine's army broke through in 2024, for 14 years over kickbacks for government contracts related to the construction of fortifications.

In August 2024, Ukrainian troops stormed into the western region and held swathes of land for months, in the first military incursion into Russia by a foreign army in decades.

Since then, the Kremlin has launched a sweeping corruption crackdown targeting top regional as well as military officials over the failure to stop the incursion, which came two-and-a-half years into Russia's full-scale offensive on Ukraine.

Alexei Smirnov, the former Kursk governor, was "sentenced to 14 years in prison and (given) a fine of 400 million rubles ($5 million)," a Kursk court said in a statement following a trial on charges of bribe-taking.

Smirnov was charged with receiving the equivalent of over $250,000 in kickback payments, along with two associates, for giving preferential treatment in assigning government fortifications contracts worth around $2.5 million in total.

According to the court, he pleaded guilty.

Another former Kursk governor -- Roman Starovoyt, who led the region for five years until a few months before the Ukrainian breakthrough -- died by suicide last year after being dismissed from his post as transport minister amid speculation he was also set to be arrested on corruption charges.

The Russian army pushed the Ukrainians out of Kursk in April 2025 with the help of thousands of North Korean troops.