Mayor of submarine town faces 15 years in prison
According to the Russian General Prosecutor, Mayor of Vidyaevo Sergei Bogza is guilty of large-scale corruption.
The General Prosecutor in Murmansk has approved the indictment in a criminal case against Sergei Bogza, the mayor of Vidyaevo.
Allegedly, Bogza accepted bribes worth 4,2 million rubles (€45,000) in connection with the signing of a contract on demolition of old houses in late 2024.
In addition, he is accused of involvement in the municipality's purchase of a bus from his former spouse at a knowingly inflated price.
The case is coming up in the October District Court in Murmansk. Bogza faces up to 15 years behind bars.
Sergei Bogza was arrested in a well-staged setup by the Russian Investigative Committee in April 2025. Video by the Investigative Committee in Murmansk.
The town mayor was arrested in April 2025 and has since been in custody. The politician was appointed mayor in November 2022. He then came from the post as deputy mayor of the neighbouring municipality of Aleksandrovsk.
Following the arrest of Bogza, the mayoral office was taken over by his deputy Olga Patramanskaya.
Vidyaevo has status as a closed military town. It houses the Northern Fleet's 7th Submarine Division. Today, the division is believed to include a few vessels of the Oscar-III and Sierra-I classes.
Among them is the B-448 Tambov and the B-336 Pskov.
Previously, Vidyaevo also housed the Kursk, an Oscar-II nuclear-powered sub that sank in the Barents Sea in 2000.
