In a contentious trial in Moscow, a former governor from the Far East of Russia was found guilty of murder and attempted murder and given a 22-year prison term.
Sergei Furgal maintains his innocence and claims that the prosecution of him was politically motivated.
In 2018, he unexpectedly defeated the Kremlin's preferred candidate to become governor of the Khabarovsk region.
Locals were extremely angry following his arrest in July 2020.
A jury found Furgal, 52, guilty of two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, and Luberetsky Court's judge decreed that he must serve out the remainder of his sentence in a secure facility.
According to the prosecution, the killings in 2004 and 2005 were related to rivalry between Furgal and other businessmen.
After the sentence was announced, the former governor, who ran for office on the platform of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), struggled to control his emotions in the courtroom and yelled, "Do you have no shame?" at the judge. He will appeal, according to his attorneys.
When he was first detained, a large number of Khabarovsk citizens — some estimates put the number at 50,000 — flocked to the streets. The Kremlin was unprepared for such demonstrations because they are uncommon in Russia.
Furgal's supporters asserted that the criminal case against him was politically motivated as retaliation for the politician's audacity in challenging the Kremlin candidate in elections.
According to experts, there was a significant anti-Moscow vote that led to his resounding victory. He was a tough-talking governor who was, according to some, more well-liked than President Vladimir Putin.
Contract killings of business rivals were widespread in Russia, particularly in the 1990s and the first part of the 2000s, when Furgal was a prosperous entrepreneur.
His unique position as a well-liked local politician who did not exhibit unwavering loyalty to the Kremlin, however, is more likely to be connected to the case.
Furgal may have participated in dubious activities in the past, but so have many of the other regional leaders that Putin has been happy to back, according to Russia expert Mark Galeotti, who spoke to the BBC. It is apparent that this was primarily a political decision on the part of the Kremlin, which searched for an excuse to get rid of Furgal.
Two factors made the 2020 Khabarovsk protest movement unique. First of all, it was a grassroots movement, which prevented the police from simply apprehending the ringleaders.
It was also narrowly focused on a single local issue—the arrest of the governor—which made it very difficult for the Kremlin to blame the West or "foreign forces" as is its customary strategy.
However, arrests were made in the weeks that followed, and the protesters were ultimately dispersed or forced off the streets.
Mikhail Degtyaryov, a representative of the LDPR, was appointed as the new governor by President Putin. However, Mr. Degtyarov is a Kremlin ally who has just started to publicly support Russia's conflict in Ukraine.