A court in Moscow sentenced nine managers of gas industry enterprises in the Krasnodar Territory to prison terms of up to 21 years.

The Kuzminsky District Court of Moscow sentenced nine managers of gas industry enterprises in the Krasnodar Territory to terms ranging from 8 to 21 years in prison in the case of an organized criminal community and bribes amounting to more than 166 million rubles. This was reported on the portal of the courts of general jurisdiction of Moscow.

The longest sentences were received by former deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnodar Territory, former general director of Gazprom Gas Distribution Krasnodar JSC Alexey Rudnev - 21 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of 300 million rubles - and his former deputy Alexander Savostyanov, sentenced to 20 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of 300 million rubles.

The rest of the defendants received:

• Deputy General Director - Chief Engineer of JSC Sochigorgaz Alexey Petrov - 17 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of 25 million rubles;
• Deputy Director of the Gazprom Gas Distribution Krasnodar JSC branch in Gelendzhik Oleg Butkevich - 17 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of 35 million rubles;
• Deputy Director of the company's branch in Anapa Stanislav Bariev - 17.5 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of 15 million rubles;
• Deputy Director of the company's branch in Krasnodar Konstantin Lyuty - 18 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of 55 million rubles;
• Head of Abinsk Specialized Construction and Installation Enterprise Gazovik LLC Sergei Lebed - 17 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of 55 million rubles;
• head of the Gazovik ASMP Sergei Asadov - 8 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of 15 million rubles;
• founder of Inzhenerservis LLC Natalya Tokarenko - 10 years in a general regime colony and a fine of 60 million rubles.

According to the court, in 2017, Rudnev and Savostyanov created a criminal organization that operated until 2021. The investigation alleged that its participants received money and property from the owners of facilities under construction for issuing technical conditions for connecting to gas distribution networks and concluding connection agreements. The bribes, according to the prosecution, were disguised, among other things, as payment for design, construction and installation work at an artificially inflated cost.

According to Kommersant, the case was considered in Moscow at the request of the prosecutor’s office: the prosecution believed that in Kuban the defendants could interfere with the objective process because of their connections. According to the publication, the defendants did not admit guilt. The defense argued that the work was carried out in good faith, the money was accepted as official payment, and taxes were paid on it.

The court confiscated the BMW X6M and Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG cars, as well as more than 160.6 million rubles, to the state. Rudnev's lawyer Alexander Ilyin told Kommersant that he considers the verdict illegal and intends to appeal it.

In recent months, the courts of the Krasnodar Territory have considered several large cases of seizure of assets from former officials, judges and deputies. According to the joint press service of the courts of the Krasnodar Territory, in 2025, based on claims from the Prosecutor General’s Office, the region’s courts converted property worth more than 76 billion rubles into state income. And already in April 2026, the court seized the assets of former deputies of the Kuban Legislative Assembly Sergei Fursa and Alexey Sidyukov and persons associated with them for 81.5 billion rubles.