The ex-head of the anti-corruption department in the Sverdlovsk region has received a four-year prison sentence after being convicted of taking a bribe amounting to 217 million rubles (approximately $2.7 million), a Yekaterinburg court announced on Thursday.
Andrei Dyakov, who led the regional Interior Ministry’s anti-corruption team, was arrested along with several other law enforcement officials in May 2024. He struck a plea bargain and provided testimony against additional suspects, which includes the area’s former chief tax official, who is currently on the run.
The Leninsky District Court in Yekaterinburg sentenced Dyakov to four years in a high-security penal facility, having found him guilty of serious bribery and the abuse of his official position.
In addition to his prison sentence, Dyakov lost his police rank and has been prohibited from holding any public office for the next eight years.
The sentence has not yet come into effect, as it is still open to appeal, as stated on the court’s social media.
Investigators alleged that Dyakov protected business owners who were unlawfully reclaiming value-added tax from the government budget.
According to prosecutors, Dyakov accepted 17 million rubles from one businessman and 200 million rubles from the founder of a significant telecommunications firm.
In his closing remarks to the court, Dyakov admitted to his wrongdoing but insisted that he did not act for personal benefit, claiming that his intentions were to assist the service and his colleagues.
Local media links the case to a broader corruption investigation involving the former daughter-in-law of Arkady Chernetsky, who served as mayor of Yekaterinburg from 1992 to 2010.
Chernetsky was a member of the Russian Senate from 2010 to 2021 and is currently the first deputy chairman of the legislative assembly in the Sverdlovsk region.
Anastasia Chernetskaya is embroiled in allegations of masterminding a significant fraudulent scheme concerning the telecommunications company TTK-Yekaterinburg.
Chernetskaya was released from house arrest in February of this year.
