A jailed district official outside Moscow who helped trash protesters now faces a second set of criminal charges

Things have gone from bad to worse for Alexander Shestun, the head of the Moscow region's Serpukhovsky district. Previously charged with abusing his authority, he now faces new criminal charges that he stole and laundered roughly 150 million rubles ($2.3 million) through several real-estate companies that he allegedly headed while in office.

In jail since April 2018, Shestun started a hunger strike on July 30 and was hospitalized on August 27, claiming that he’s being framed by political enemies. On the first set of charges alone, Shestun faces up to 10 years in prison.

What’s so special about yet another Russian official behind bars on corruption charges?

Alexander Shestun has been unusually loud about criticizing his captors. Even before he was arrested, Shestun published a video appeal to Vladimir Putin, saying that Moscow Governor Andrey Vorobyov was gunning for him, allegedly threatening to put him in prison and confiscate his home, if he didn’t resign. Vorobyov supposedly wants him out because Shestun opposes the transformation of the Serpukhovsky district into a municipal precinct and he objects to further waste shipments from the city to Serpukhov’s over-capacity “Lesnaya” landfill.

Other prominent men in the Moscow region have also encountered sudden problems with the law, after lending their support to locals protesting against unwanted trash dumps. In mid-August, FSB agents raided the home of Artem Lyubimov, a businessman in Volokolamsk who’s helped organize demonstrations. He’s been accused of hiding American citizenship.