A former mayor of the Russian city of Vladivostok has enlisted to fight in the war in ukraine and has left for the front after being sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Sunday, citing his lawyer.
Oleg Gumenyuk, former mayor of Vladivostok, was sentenced last year to 12 years in prison for accepting bribes worth 38 million rubles ($432,000). He was mayor between 2018 and 2021, and resigned amid a barrage of criticism of his career from local and federal officials.
“According to an order issued to Gumenyuk, he was supposed to report to his military unit on December 22,” Kommersant quoted Gumenyuk’s lawyer Andrei Kitaev as saying. Kitaev could not be reached for comment.
Tens of thousands of Russian prisoners volunteered volunteers to serve in Ukraine, taking advantage of the offer of clemency for those who survived their stay at the front.
In December, Kommersant reported that Alexander Tyutin, a St. Petersburg businessman who had been serving a 23-year sentence for ordering contract killings until he enlisted in Ukraine, had been arrested again for plotting more murders.