Appeal Date Set for Volgograd Environmental Chairman's Arrest

The Moscow City Court has set a date for an appeal on the complaint by lawyers of Alexei Sivokoz, chairman of the Volgograd Region Committee for Natural Resources, Forestry, and Ecology. The case moved from the court of first instance to the appeal court in just one day.

The investigator«s petition for the arrest of Alexei Sivokoz was submitted to the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow on 18 December 2025 and was granted the same day—the official was sent to a pre-trial detention center. On 22 December, the decision to impose pre-trial detention was appealed, but only on 28 January 2026 did information appear about the case being transferred to the appeal court. On 29 January, the date and time for considering the complaint were already set—4 February 2026, 9:30.

Anonymous Telegram channels link the detention of Alexei Sivokoz and his two former deputies—Irina Panina and Darya Kazankova—with the implementation of the national project «Rehabilitation of the Volga,» for which a State Duma deputy had previously harshly criticized the regional leadership. Irina Panina was arrested on the eve of Alexei Sivokoz«s detention, Darya Kazankova ended up in a pre-trial detention center on the same day as her former boss, and her appeal against the pre-trial detention was considered first but left unchanged.