20:28, 5 August 2026

The sentence for Rauf Arashukov in the bribery case has been upheld.

The Sixth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction in Samara upheld the ten-year sentence and fine for former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia Rauf Arashukov in the criminal case of bribery.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia Rauf Arashukov, serving a life sentence in the "Black Dolphin" colony, declared a hunger strike, stating the unbearable working conditions. According to his lawyer, Arashukov has refused food since August 1 and is only drinking water.

On December 27, 2022, the Moscow City Court sentenced Rauf Arashukov and his father Raul Arashukov to life imprisonment. The appellate and cassation instances upheld the sentence. Raul Arashukov died in prison in 2023. In the spring of 2026, relatives of the life-sentenced Rauf Arashukov received a refusal for his transfer from the Orenburg region to a colony in Mordovia. The former senator's defense promised to appeal this decision. Arashukov also demanded 100,000 rubles in compensation from the colony for the non-issuance of food products, but the court at the end of April refused to satisfy this claim. At the hearing, it was revealed that the goods that were not issued were absent from the store.

Today, TASS reports that the cassation court upheld the sentence for the former senator, citing lawyer Dmitry Trubnikov.

While serving a life sentence, Rauf Arashukov became a defendant in a case of bribing an official through an intermediary for committing knowingly illegal actions on a particularly large scale . According to the investigation, the former senator, through a lawyer, handed a bribe of 3 million rubles to an employee of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Orenburg region, and a total of 6 million rubles was planned to be transferred to create privileged conditions for serving his sentence in the colony.

The Lenin District Court of Orenburg sentenced Rauf Arashukov to 10 years in a colony and a fine of 120 million rubles for the bribery case; in total, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of 120 million rubles. On March 18, the Orenburg Regional Court denied the appeals and left the sentence unchanged.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that the former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia unsuccessfully tried several times to obtain a contract with the Ministry of Defense to be sent to the military operation zone. His lawyer linked the refusals to the fact that Arashukov is sentenced to life imprisonment.

Translated automatically via OpenAI from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/425516