20:37, 5 May 2026

Alexei Safonov's 20-year sentence was upheld on appeal.

After reconsidering the defense's appeal, the Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia upheld the prison sentence of Alexei Safonov, former head of the Stavropol Krai traffic police department. He was sentenced in May 2025 to 20 years in a maximum-security penal colony for creating a criminal organization and accepting bribes.

As reported by Caucasian Knot, at the end of February 2025, the Fifth Cassation Court overturned the appellate decision of the Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia, which upheld the 20-year sentence of Alexei Safonov, former head of the Stavropol Krai traffic police department. The case was returned for a new appellate hearing.

On July 20, 2021, Alexei Safonov, head of the Stavropol State Traffic Inspectorate, along with former department head Alexander Arzhanukhin, inspector Vitaly Melchikov, and four civilians, were arrested. Investigators accused them of accepting more than 19 million rubles in bribes from drivers for illegal cargo transportation. In addition to his prison term, Safonov was sentenced to a fine of 100 million rubles and stripped of his special rank of "police colonel." On May 12, 2025, a court in Cherkessk sentenced Alexei Safonov, former head of the Stavropol State Traffic Inspectorate, to 20 years in a maximum-security penal colony in a multi-million ruble bribe case. The prosecutor requested a 24-year prison sentence for Safonov, while the defense sought an acquittal for the security officer. An appeal against the verdict was heard on August 25, 2025, by the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia. The court amended the verdict of the city court regarding the additional punishment imposed; it corrected a typo, changing the sentence from 19,484,330 rubles to 21,849,500 rubles. The rest of the verdict was upheld.

Today, the Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia held a retrial of the defense's appeal against Alexei Safonov's sentence. The court once again upheld Safonov's primary sentence, TASS reported, citing the convicted man's lawyer, Alexander Dudin.

The court again found that Safonov created and led an organized criminal organization, whose members received bribes totaling over 21.8 million rubles. In exchange for these bribes, truck drivers were able to transport cargo unhindered, despite various violations. Safonov had previously pleaded not guilty to the crimes he was charged with.

Safronov's sentence was amended only in terms of the secondary sentence. In particular, the court excluded from the verdict the reference to members of the criminal organization receiving at least 19,484,000 rubles in bribes, stating that the members of the criminal organization received bribes totaling 21,849,000 rubles, Interfax reported.

Alexei Safonov's defense plans to appeal the second Supreme Court decision, which upheld the main verdict of the Cherkessk City Court after a second appeal, emphasized Alexander Dudin.

The case of the former head of the Stavropol traffic police has sparked a public outcry: during a search, it was discovered that Safonov's mansion was decorated with gold trim inside, with inlaid furniture and crystal chandeliers throughout, and a gilded sink and toilet in the bathroom. In addition to the mansion with the "golden toilet," Safonov's other properties were found.

The "Caucasian Knot" also reported that the court remanded former deputy head of Pyatigorsk Svetlana Marchenko, accused of abuse of office, in custody for two months. According to investigators, in 2020, she helped unidentified individuals win an auction for the right to reconstruct hydraulic structures on the Alikonovka River in Kislovodsk.

Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/423003