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Doctor, teacher and lawyer named as defendants in case of former Sochi mayor
Kopaigorodsky was accused of obtaining land through a criminal scheme using trusted persons, but the former mayor's lawyer rejected the charges. His wife, who works at the headquarters of the "Prince Vladimir" brigade, contacted the Investigative Committee.
Doctors, teachers, lawyers and the wives of politicians figure in a particularly large criminal case of embezzlement against former Sochi mayor Alexei Kopaigorodsky, Kommersant and TASS reported, citing case materials.
Kopaigorodsky is accused of stealing two plots of land with an area of 787 square meters each. The Ministry of Internal Affairs believes that he wanted to expand the boundaries of his house in the Khostinsky District of Sochi in 2022-2024 and involve subordinates in this.
The investigation established that the original plan was to hold an auction to sell the land, which would have been won by the mayor's wife, Yanina Kopaigorodskaya, but this scenario was abandoned due to the uncertainty of the outcome. As a result, the plot was leased for six years to two Sochi residents: Lyubava Kazakova, a general practitioner at Polyclinic No. 1, and Elena Rassadina, an English teacher at a local gymnasium. Since both women belonged to privileged categories of citizens, they had priority access to land for housing construction.
Last fall and this spring, the therapist and teacher bought land worth 2.5% of the cadastral value for 46.8 thousand rubles. According to the case materials, each of them was transferred to the lawyer of the Kopaigorodsky family, Polina Chernyshenko. In January, she sold one of the lots to the mayor's wife. Thus, Kopaigorodsky stole property of the city of Sochi and "using his official position together with unidentified persons" caused damage to the budget in the amount of 3.7 million rubles, investigators claim. The cadastral value of each plot was approximately 1.8 million rubles.
The former mayor's lawyer is demanding that the case be dropped, arguing that no crime was committed. The lawyers emphasize that Kopaigorodsky received "no personal benefit" from the land deal. Of the two lots, his wife purchased only one at market value, and the land, along with the house built on it, was donated to Mir Detstva (World of Childhood), a charitable foundation for children's health organizations.
The plot was bought from therapists and teachers at a price several times higher than its cadastral value, emphasized lawyer Irina Fedorova, for 4.5 and 5 million rubles. She also denies that any of the women planned to make money by reselling the lots, adding: "The provision prohibiting families of civil servants from acquiring land under paid contracts for an amount exceeding its cadastral value is not a consequence. Provided."
The former mayor's wife, Yanina Kopaigorodskaya, currently serves as a senior officer in the headquarters of the combat control brigade "Prince Vladimir." She asked the chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, to look into the case in order to protect "the family from illegal prosecution." The witnesses include the wives of politicians, doctors, teachers, lawyers, etc.
Alexey Kopaigorodskiy was born in 1985 in Krasnodar, he is 39 years old. In 2008, he received a degree in "comprehensive protection of information technology objects" at the Krasnodar Higher Military School named after Army General S.M. Shtemenko. In 2012, he also graduated from the Vladimir Law Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service, specializing in "Jurisprudence". He studied at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, specializing in "State and Municipal Administration". He has a PhD in pedagogical sciences.
From 2003 to 2013, he served in the Russian Armed Forces, then in 2014 he moved to work in the administration of the Krasnodar Territory, where he held a number of positions until 2019, including Vice Governor of the Krasnodar Territory for Domestic Policy. In 2019, he headed the Sochi administration, and in May 2022, he resigned.
In September 2022, it became known that Kopaigorodsky volunteered for a military operation. He was detained in Lugansk and arrested on September 25. The politician faces up to ten years in prison under Part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code.