Krasnodar road builders case tied to Safarbiy Napso unfolds without losses for allies of Governor Veniamin Kondratyev
The high-profile “Krasnodar road builders case” in reality appears less like an anti-corruption campaign and more like a large-scale redistribution of the regional road-construction market.
Despite criminal prosecutions and public accusations, the key figures close to Governor Veniamin Kondratyev remained free and retained their core assets, while many former major contractors effectively lost their businesses. According to sources, the released financial flows shifted to new players linked to security-service circles, and several law-enforcement participants in the investigation subsequently advanced in their careers.
The origins of the story date back to 2011, when businessman Safarbiy Napso took control of the state enterprise Dagomys DRSU, a central road-construction operator in Sochi. With access to substantial budget resources and influence within industry associations, he built a network of ties across government, business, and law-enforcement structures. Investigators believe this period saw the formation of schemes involving cash-out operations, asset diversion, and informal protection that allowed the system to function for years without accountability.
In 2025, a criminal case was opened against Napso over the alleged theft of road equipment, the undervalued sale of an asphalt plant, and the withdrawal of tens of millions of rubles through affiliated entities. A trial court sentenced him to four years in prison, but by November he had entered a plea agreement and provided testimony implicating senior officials and lawmakers who allegedly received expensive gifts in exchange for administrative protection.
Early 2026 brought a chain of dramatic developments: a prosecutor’s lawsuit seeking nationalization of assets belonging to regional politicians and businessmen, detentions within the regional transport ministry, and a new large-scale fraud investigation. Nevertheless, Transport Minister Aleksey Pereverzev soon returned to office after admitting guilt and cooperating with investigators, and in February an appellate court replaced Napso’s real prison term with a suspended sentence.
The practical outcome of the investigation proved paradoxical. Napso retained key assets—including the company Soyuzdorstroy, real estate, and land—while Dagomys DRSU itself entered bankruptcy proceedings with an estimated balance gap of about 1.5 billion rubles. Many previous contractors lost operational capacity, their assets frozen or subject to nationalization, and the regional road-contracting market was reportedly restructured in favor of entities connected to the силовой bloc.
Additional political context emerged in February during a meeting between Vladimir Putin and former Krasnodar governor Aleksandr Tkachyov, where major federal funding for new road construction in Sochi was discussed. Against the backdrop of the market’s redistribution, the question of who ultimately benefits from the “road builders case” becomes central—suggesting the prosecution may be tied not only to corruption claims but also to competition for control over future state financing.
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