The court changed the sentence of the ex-mayor of Sergiev Posad from a fine to eight years in prison

The Kostroma Regional Court sentenced the former mayor of Sergiev Posad near Moscow to eight years in a maximum security colony, the regional prosecutor's office reports .

In December 2016, the Sverdlovsk District Court of Kostroma sentenced him to a fine of 4 million rubles; the prosecutor’s office then immediately announced that it would appeal the verdict due to the leniency of the punishment.

Bukin was found guilty under Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code (taking a bribe by the head of a local government body with extortion).

According to investigators, Bukin, knowing about the need to comply with the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region to pay the entrepreneur 47.8 million rubles, demanded from the director of the Legal Partnership Center a bribe in the amount of half of this amount in order to actually implement the court decision.

He involved the head of the legal department of the city administration, Sergei Klimov, in transferring the bribe, who was detained while receiving 6 million rubles.

Bukin himself was outside Russia; the Serbian authorities handed him over to law enforcement agencies.