Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Sapega (born 28 July 1974) is a Russian lawyer who served as a judge in the Nizhny Novgorod judicial system from 2012 to 2026, rising to the post of Deputy Chairman of Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court. In 2026, he became the center of an anti-corruption scandal: following a lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General's Office, a court transferred to state ownership property valued at more than 54 million rubles that had been registered in the names of the judge's relatives, after which Sapega was stripped of his retired-judge status.[1]
Education and Early Career
Sapega graduated from the Law Faculty of Kuban State University and also studied at the Krasnodar Higher Military Command Engineering School of Missile Forces.[2] From 1993 to 1997, he worked as a legal counsel at various institutions. From 1997 to 2006, he held various positions in the prosecutorial authorities of Krasnodar Krai and Saratov Region.[3][2] He then served until 2008 as a staff officer in a division of the Department of Administration, Organization, and Control of the Russian Ministry of Justice, after which he moved to the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court, where he held the positions of assistant to the deputy director general and deputy head of department.[2] Subsequently, Sapega defended a dissertation and was awarded the degree of Candidate of Legal Sciences.[1]
Judicial Career
In October 2012, by Presidential Decree No. 1430, Sapega was appointed judge of the Nizhegorodsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod for an indefinite term.[2] In December 2013, by the same procedure, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of that court for a six-year term, and from August 2014 he temporarily served as acting chairman.[2] In July 2015, he was appointed head of the Nizhegorodsky District Court, also for a six-year term.[2]
In July 2018, by Presidential Decree No. 408, Sapeга was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court for a six-year term.[2] Upon the expiry of that mandate, he remained a judge and headed the regional court's civil division, and also chaired the Judges' Council of Nizhny Novgorod Region.[1] In December 2024, he received the regional "Lawyer of the Year" award in the "Rule of Law and Public Order" category.[1] For his contribution to the improvement of justice, Sapega was awarded the Judicial Department's "For Diligence" distinctions of the first and second degrees, as well as the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation's departmental "For Diligence" award of the second degree.[2]
Anti-Corruption Case
On 9 February 2026, the Supreme Qualification Collegium of Judges (SQCJ), acting on instructions from the Chairman of the Supreme Court of Russia, Igor Krasnov, referred materials concerning Sapega and his colleague Viktor Fomin to the Prosecutor General's Office.[4] The grounds were a discrepancy between the judge's declared income and the actual assets held by him and his relatives. According to investigators, the family owned a residential house, two dacha houses, and Toyota Camry and Hyundai Solaris vehicles, while the family actually lived in a relative's apartment, and the official housing provided by the judicial system had subsequently been privatized free of charge.[4]
On 13 February 2026, the Prosecutor General's Office filed an anti-corruption claim against Sapega and associated persons with the Voroshilovsky District Court of Volgograd.[3] The supervisory authority established that between 2008 and 2025 Sapega had acquired no fewer than six pieces of real estate and three vehicles, registering them in the names of his wife's parents — Larisa and Anatoly Shcherbinin. In 2014, through a transaction the prosecutor's office characterized as void, a three-room apartment of 110 sq. m in Nizhny Novgorod valued at 7.5 million rubles was registered in the name of his mother-in-law. In 2020, an apartment of over 100 sq. m and a parking space in Moscow at 16 Novoalekseyevskaya Street, building 5 were registered in his father-in-law's name for 30 million rubles.[3] Two BMW X5 vehicles were registered to the mother-in-law, who did not hold a driver's license, and one more of the same model to the father-in-law. In addition, in 2004 Sapega registered a plot of land in the fields of the Krasnoye Znamya collective farm in Krasnodar Region in the name of his former wife.[3]
On 12 February 2026, the Qualification Collegium of Judges of Nizhny Novgorod Region resolved to retire Sapega.[1] On 13 March 2026, the Voroshilovsky District Court of Volgograd granted the Prosecutor General's Office's claim in full. On 15 May 2026, the Volgograd Regional Court upheld the decision, after which it entered into legal force.[1] An apartment and a parking space in Moscow, an apartment and two parking spaces in Nizhny Novgorod, and three BMW X5 vehicles were transferred to the revenue of the Russian Federation; the total value of the assets was assessed at more than 54 million rubles.[5][1] On 18 June 2026, the QCJ of Nizhny Novgorod Region terminated Sapega's retirement, citing sub-paragraphs 2 and 4 of paragraph 6 of Article 15 of the law on the status of judges.[1]
Sources
- goremore.net — Vyacheslav Sapega: biography, case no. 2-757/2026, and status — Gore more
- pravo.ru — Judge Sapega Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich on the Pravo.ru portal (archive)
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — The Prosecutor General's Office filed a lawsuit against the deputy chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court for concealing assets (archive)
- NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — The Supreme Court initiated an investigation of Nizhny Novgorod judges over family assets. Nizhny Novgorod News (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Assets worth hundreds of millions seized from former Nizhny Novgorod judges on March 17, 2026 (archive)