MOSCOW (Reuters) – Former Governor Alexei Smirnov, Russia’s Kursk region, was detained on Wednesday on suspicion of fraud, state news agency Tass reported.
Smirnov was the head of the western region when Ukrainian troops smashed the border in August 2024 in a massive invasion. Since then, the Russian offensive has driven out most of the Ukrainian army.
Smirnov led the region from May 2024 to December of that year, when he was replaced by Alexander Khinshtein. Smirnov was detained along with his former deputy, Alexei Dedov.
During the first few hours of Ukrainian invasion of Kursk in August, Smirnov repeatedly provided assurances that the situation was under control even as the Russian border guards were delayed and retreated due to surprise attacks.
A few days later, Vladimir Putin gently condemned Smirnov’s efforts to focus on the military situation in his report to the head of state rather than to help civilians in the Kursk region.
(Reuters report; writing by Maxim Rodionov and Felix Light; edited by Mark Trevelyan)
