Former Sochi Mayor Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison in Bribery Case

The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow sentenced former Sochi Mayor Alexei Kopaygorodsky to 15 years in prison. The court found him guilty of accepting bribes totaling more than 300 million rubles, embezzlement on an especially large scale, and money laundering.

 

Taking all the crimes into account, the judge sentenced the former mayor to 15 years in a strict-regime penal colony and a fine of 500 million rubles. The court also stripped him of his Medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland,” 2nd Class, and barred him from holding leadership positions in government bodies for 14.5 years after his release.

In particular, the court found the former mayor’s wife, Yanina Kopaygorodskaya, guilty of acting as an intermediary in her husband’s corruption crimes, as well as of coercing a witness into giving false testimony. She was sentenced to nine years in a general-regime penal colony and fined 500 million rubles.

The court confiscated funds belonging to Alexei Kopaygorodsky equivalent to the amount of bribes received, totaling 319.8 million rubles. In addition, he and his wife, Yanina, were jointly ordered to pay another 121 million rubles—the amount of laundered criminal proceeds. The judge also granted the civil claim filed by the Sochi administration and ordered the former mayor to pay 26.2 million rubles in damages.

As a reminder, Oleg Kuvayev, the creator of “Masya,” was sentenced in absentia to more than four years in a penal colony in Russia.

Earlier, Russian animator Kuvayev released a new episode of “Masya” in support of Ukraine.

In the new episode, Masyanya speaks Ukrainian.

Following this, the Russian Federation issued a warrant for the arrest of the creator of “Masya.”