"Official In Russia's Chuvashia Region Convicted Of Forgery Linked To Chinese Investment Project", 10 August 2021

An official in the Republic of Chuvashia in Russia's Volga region, where expanding Chinese investment has sparked protests in the past over alleged corruption, has been convicted of forgery linked to a Chinese agricultural deal.

Maksim Medvedev was found guilty of forging documents related to public discussions that never occurred to allocate the lands in 2019 to the Sichuan-Chuvashia Chinese-Russian agricultural joint venture. [...]

A lawmaker of Chuvashia's State Council, Aleksandr Andreyev, had accused the republic's top officials of involvement in the illegal allocation of lands to the joint venture.

In the recent years, residents of Chuvashia have staged numerous rallies protesting Chinese companies' involvement in the economic development of the region, accusing local authorities of corruption related to such Chinese projects.

Medvedev refused to comment after the verdict and sentence were delivered. In the past, he had not made any public comments about the probe against him. [...]