A court in the Russian city of Tomsk on September 9 sentenced the former governor of the Siberian Tomsk region, Dmitry Gurdin, to five years in prison on embezzlement charges. The Soviet district court also ordered the former official to pay a fine of 400,000 rubles ($4,425). Gurdin was found guilty of embezzling 79 million rubles ($873,780) allocated for construction projects in the region. The court also convicted Gurdin of using a forged document but did not sentence him on that charge, citing the statute of limitations. Gurdin's lawyers said the ruling will be appealed. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, click here.
