Russian Officials Have Begun To Be Jailed Almost Daily
- 3.04.2026, 16:21
This year could be a record year.
In 2026, Russian law enforcement agencies sharply stepped up criminal prosecution of high-ranking officials: in the first three months alone, at least 72 federal and regional executives were put under investigation, which corresponds to about six detentions per week.
This data is provided by Novaia Gazeta Europa, which counted the number of cases against managers, deputies, mayors and vice-mayors. In 2025, the total number of criminal cases against high-ranking officials increased by almost 30% compared to the previous year, and the current year, judging by the dynamics, promises to be no less, and perhaps even more "fruitful," the newspaper notes.
The 72 defendants arrested in 2026 include five federal officials, 23 heads of regional subdivisions of federal agencies (for example, departments of the Interior Ministry) and 43 regional managers. 26 of them belong to the highest echelon - not lower than a deputy regional minister. For comparison, there were 80 such detentions in the whole of 2025, i.e. the rate was about one case every four or five days.
In total, during the years of the full-scale war against Ukraine, criminal cases have been opened against 697 federal and regional officials at the senior level. The average annual number of such cases increased 2.7 times: from 60 cases a year before the war to 164 after it began.
"To survive, the autocracy needs to instill fear, but not to unleash the machine of great terror," explains the logic of the authorities, political scientist Ekaterina Shulman. - Now we see that every next detention of an official is not publicly presented as part of a campaign or an element of a large-scale purge. On the contrary, the system avoids such rhetoric. Meanwhile, the growing risks for officials, the redistribution of assets and the inability to leave the country safely is one of the main destabilizing factors in modern Russia," she says.
In total, during the years of the full-scale war against Ukraine, criminal cases have been opened against 697 federal and regional senior officials. The average annual number of such cases increased 2.7 times: from 60 cases a year before the war to 164 after it began.