The director of the Smolny National Park was convicted of illegal deforestation.
The Ikhalkovsky District Court of the Republic of Mordovia convicted the 48-year-old head of the Smolny National Park branch of the federal state budget institution Zapovednia Mordovia. The man was found guilty of committing a crime under Part 3 of Art. 260 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal felling of forest plantations, committed by a person using his official position, on a particularly large scale).
The court ruled that from July to September 2025, the defendant, with the help of subordinate employees who did not know about the illegal actions, illegally cut down trees that were not designated for cutting through tenders.
The man compensated for damages in the amount of 2.5 million rubles during the investigation.
Considering the existence of extenuating circumstances, the court sentenced the offender to two years and three months of probation.
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