Konstantin Polezhayev

Konstantin Alekseyevich Polezhayev was born in Belgorod on 14 August 1972, then part of the Soviet Union. He grew up in the city that would define his career. In a November 2017 Belgorod-24 interview he said that from about the sixth grade he had wanted to become a soldier, but that military path did not materialize. He had a sister about ten years younger.

In 1996 he graduated from the Kharkiv State Automobile and Road Technical University (Kharkiv National Automobile and Highway University) as a civil engineer for roads and airfields. He later said he met his future wife, herself a qualified road engineer, during those studies. Their son Stanislav was about twenty-four in 2017 and was studying orthopedic dentistry.

Before and around the start of his white-collar engineering track he worked as a third-category concrete worker on Belgorod infrastructure, including a bridge over the Vezelka, a railway overpass, and bypass works near Konstantin Zaslonov Street.

From 1996 to October 2004 Polezhayev worked as an engineer, deputy department head, and head of technical supervision at the Belgorod Oblast Department of Public Roads and Transport. From October 2004 he was acting, then chief, engineer of the regional road administration. On 19 November 2007 he became head of the department.

Local reporting associated his roads tenure with major Belgorod corridors, including the Sputnik-Sumskaya-Chicherina-Rotunda route and the Tavrovo-Solomino-Razumnoye link with a bridge over the Belgorod Reservoir. In 2010 he received the title Honorary Builder of Russia and a certificate of honour from the Ministry of Transport. In 2013 he was awarded the Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," second class, for long conscientious service.

On 5 November 2013 he moved into city government as first deputy mayor of Belgorod, positioning him as Sergey Bozhenov's deputy and the leading municipal manager for roads and urban services.

After Bozhenov's departure, Polezhayev became acting head of the Belgorod City Administration on 7 October 2015. On 17 November 2015 the City Council elected him the fifth head of Belgorod, with 32 of 39 deputies voting for him. He was re-elected by deputies in September 2018.

As mayor he focused on parking policy, public transport debates, garage clusters, courtyard landscaping, and utilities. In the 2017 programme "Living in Belgorod" he said his team adopted the motto "First the deed, then the word," reported nearly a 20 percent reduction in the number of city officials after he took over, and described daily morning briefings with deputies. He told viewers he valued honesty, diligence, and the ability to hear residents. Regional press often cast him as a practical khozyaystvennik rather than a televised national politician.

His mayoral years also brought local honours later formalized on the record, including recognition connected with Belgorod city awards. On 21 January 2019 he left the mayoralty when he was appointed deputy governor, and Yury Galdun succeeded him as head of the city.

On 21 January 2019 Polezhayev was appointed deputy governor of Belgorod Oblast and head of the regional housing and communal services department. From 1 January 2022 he continued as deputy governor overseeing housing questions under the regional leadership of the period, including governors Evgeny Savchenko and later Vyacheslav Gladkov.

The portfolio covered the oblast's housing stock, utilities contractors, and reconstruction tasks that grew sharper after cross-border fighting damaged border towns. On 4 July 2023 Gladkov dismissed him, citing systematic non-performance of duties and poor organization of restoration work in Shebekino and Novaya Tavolzhanka. Sergey Dovgalyuk was named among successors in regional reference summaries.

In 2020, while still in regional office, he received the medal "For Merit to the Land of Belgorod," first class, and his name was entered in Belgorod's book of honour in connection with the medal "For Merit to the City of Belgorod," third class.

On 21 July 2023 Russian media reported Polezhayev's detention on suspicion of receiving a bribe on an especially large scale (Article 290, part 6, of the Criminal Code). The Investigative Committee said that in January 2022 and 2023, while deputy governor, he allegedly received two foreign premium cars worth more than 17 million rubles from a construction-company director as payment for helping accept wastewater-treatment works in Belgorod Oblast and for facilitating housing-sector contracts.

He admitted guilt the next day. Oktyabrsky District Court in Belgorod ordered house arrest. On 12 August 2024 a court found him guilty, imposing five years in a strict-regime colony, a fine of about 36.5 million rubles, and an eight-year ban on holding public office. The case became a major Belgorod political scandal and ended his civilian career in regional government.

After conviction, Russian outlets reported that Polezhayev signed a Defence Ministry contract and went to the war in Ukraine around October 2024. Some reporting linked him to Belgorod-based BARS volunteer structures; Mash later said he was assigned to the 1st assault battalion of the 272nd motor-rifle regiment. Accounts of how continuously he was at the front versus at home differed among channels and were disputed by regional officials at the time.

On 22 September 2026 relatives told Belgorod media outlet Fonar that he had been killed. He was 54. Mash and other sources said he suffered fatal injuries in a drone strike and was taken to a hospital in Rostov, where he could not be saved. English Wikipedia lists the death place as Ukraine and the cause as a drone strike. Early local reporting stressed that exact place, date on the ground, and full circumstances were not independently confirmed beyond those accounts.

His death closed a public life that had run from Belgorod road works to the mayor's chair, the regional housing portfolio, a corruption conviction, and wartime service.

In Belgorod, Polezhayev is remembered first as a roads and housing administrator who spent most of his career inside the same regional system. Supporters of his mayoral style pointed to courtyard upgrades, transport and parking debates, and a managerial tone that emphasized delivery over publicity. Critics later focused on the bribery conviction and on the governor's 2023 criticism of reconstruction work in Shebekino and Novaya Tavolzhanka.

Awards from his earlier career (Honorary Builder of Russia; Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," second class; Belgorod land and city medals) sit alongside the 2024 sentence and the 2026 wartime death in public summaries. For Peopleforever purposes he is documented as a Russian municipal and regional politician whose life and death are part of Belgorod's recent political history and of the wider war.

Documented honours include the title Honorary Builder of Russia (2010); a certificate of honour from the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation; the Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," second class (2013); the medal "For Merit to the Land of Belgorod," first class (2020, governor's order); and the medal "For Merit to the City of Belgorod," third class, with entry in Belgorod's book of honour (city council decision, 2020). He also received repeated certificates and thanks from Belgorod Oblast governors during his roads and mayoral years.

Polezhayev was married; he said he met his wife at the Kharkiv automobile and road institute, where she trained as a road engineer. Her full name was not consistently published in mainstream profiles used here. Their son Stanislav was about 24 in November 2017 and was studying to become an orthopedic dentist; the father said the son resembled him in character and appearance. He had a sister about ten years younger. Further details of private family life were not made public in the sources consulted. Declarator listings based on asset declarations for 2013-2019 and 2021 recorded him as married.