The case of the generals: corruption in the Ministry of Defense
Major General Andrei Koban. Source: youtube.com
According to the precepts of Serdyukov
The most high-profile corruption scandals began when Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was still in office, who, according to law enforcement services, was not himself involved in illegal actions.
Time very peculiarly disposed of the fate of those involved.
Found guilty of stealing 6 billion rubles, Evgenia Vasilyeva is now an honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, and her former boss Serdyukov is the industrial director of Rostec.
It is likely that such a loyal attitude towards embezzlers inspires dishonest military leaders.
But times seem to be changing.
Stories With the detention of generals suspected of corruption, they appear more and more often. At the same time, the case concerns not just the theft of budgetary funds, but the adoption of complexes that do not meet the specified parameters.
From the latter - the arrest of the chief of the radio engineering troops of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation, Major General Andrei Koban, suspected of receiving a bribe. The article is difficult - taking a bribe on an especially large scale.
According to the investigation, Koban received 5 million rubles from the general director of the Nizhny Novgorod Research Institute of Radio Engineering - JSC FNPTs NNIIRT, which is part of the Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern.
Why would the head of a defense institute bribe a general?
For example, in the case when a person in uniform extorts her. According to investigators, Koban demanded money from Grigory Yegorochkin, General Director of NNIIRT, for disrupting work on the Flickering project. The chief of the radio-technical troops promised to put in a good word in the highest echelons of power and extend the terms of work.
The general director could also give a bribe in order to quickly pass military acceptance in a special loyal mode and put equipment in the army. It is not for you to build a road to the dacha of relatives, as in the days of Serdyukov, here strategic security issues are involved.
The fact is that NNIIRT produces at least ten types of radar, one of which is the 59N6-E "Opponent-GE" radar. The technique has recently begun to appear in the troops and, according to the assurances of the developers, is capable of tracking hypersonic weapon.
However, according to the publication Life, during the exercises, the novelty did not fully confirm its characteristics. The story was not openly advertised, but in November last year, the general director of NNIIRT, Grigory Yegorochkin, was fired "not of his own free will."
Obviously, a couple worked according to a similar scheme, consisting of reserve lieutenant colonel Anatoly Zalivin, head of military acceptance in the Novosibirsk region, and Amir Alyamov, managing director of the local Institute of Electronic Devices JSC NIIEP.
As established by the Investigative Committee, since 2013, the director has overestimated the cost of defense products for at least 4 years, and Zalivin, realizing this, signed the documents.
As a result, the state recovered almost 60 million rubles from accomplices and sentenced in January 2022 the already former lieutenant colonel to 5 years of strict regime, and Alyamov to 6 years of the same severity. By the way, the director of NIIEP was once awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland.
Where it is thin, there it is torn
A special structure has been created in the Ministry of Defense to deal with the placement of state orders, as well as control and accounting for its implementation.
It is called DOGOZ or the Department for the provision of the state defense order. If you believe the website of the Ministry of Defense, money passes through this department for "development, supply, maintenance, modernization, repair according to the fixed range of weapons, military, special equipment and materiel."
Under the conditions of the implementation of the military budget, for obvious reasons, there can be no talk of any publicity of expenditures, and therefore the temptation to warm one's hands is very great.
Here is the leading adviser to DOGOZ, Alexander Lopatin, according to the main military investigative department, received a bribe in the amount of 2,2 million rubles.
Simultaneously with this case - in December last year - criminal proceedings were initiated against the person of the director of the UAC department, Sergei Komasko.
Military investigators have completed the criminal case against Alexander Khan, the former head of the Directorate of the Customer for Capital Construction of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison in Khabarovsk at the end of last year. The military official received at least 2,2 million rubles from the contractor for poor-quality work, this was taken into account in court and a fine of 4,4 million rubles was added to the term.
In the Western Military District, Yuri Domolazov, the former head of the Regional Directorate of the customer for the capital construction of the district, was sentenced to 3,5 years. In addition to the term, the former official received a fine of 58,5 million rubles as compensation for the damage caused.
The fraud was as follows - during the reconstruction of the St. Petersburg Rocket and Artillery Cadet Corps, he signed documents on the acceptance of work for 186 million rubles, while they cost no more than 35 million.
The scale is certainly impressive.
And again military acceptance, and again scammers from the Ministry of Defense.
If you look at the statistics of the last five or six years, then there will be an increase in corruption cases against military officials.
On the one hand, this is a sad trend, indicating that a lot of superfluous people have settled in the higher echelons of the ministry.
On the other hand, the growth in the number of detainees is a clear sign of the high efficiency of the work of the main military investigation department, the FSB and the military prosecutor's office.
Most importantly, investigators now have real mechanisms for tracking financial flows from the customer to the contractor.
Military expert Dmitry Drozdenko, in an interview with Vzglyad, commented on the work of the DOGOZ mentioned above:
“In fact, a special transparent, controlled financial system has been created to fulfill the state defense order - with its own banks, schemes, special accounts, and so on. Its creation took many years."
Detentions, arrests and convictions are unlikely to run out in the near future - the state continues to spend billions of rubles on defense, and this cannot but affect the appetites of corrupt officials.
At the same time, it cannot be said that bribery in the army is an exclusively Russian story.
In all countries, spending on defense is one of the most corrupt articles.
First of all, this is due to the closeness of the institute itself, where few people are admitted at all.
In addition, monopolists often participate in tenders, capable of multiplying the cost of services and products.
Theft is especially acute in various theaters of military operations - according to the principle "war will write off everything."
The most belligerent power in the world is the United States, and the amounts that have seeped into the sand in the last military operation in Afghanistan are simply amazing.
In 2019, the Americans let auditors into military spending, who accumulated several billion in unearmarked spending, and hundreds of millions were simply plundered. Of course, with the most direct participation of military acceptance officials, more precisely, the Pentagon's logistics department.
The concept of an external audit of defense spending (at least part of it) would be a very useful precedent for the Russian military department as well. Publication of the results of such inspections would allow, firstly, law enforcement officers to work more efficiently, and secondly, it would put pressure on dishonest people.
In the end, when the number of responsible persons with whom you have to share in case of emergency increases many times over, then the desire to take / give a bribe will decrease. At least that's the case in theory, but in practice it's worth a try and see.
Information